Band's House of Commons gig

WARRINGTON band Stoneway won a national competition to play a high-profile gig in the House of Commons.
The young musicians from Priestley College performed in the Speaker’s Room in Westminster and played both original tracks and covers in front of press and industry experts.
Band member Danny Smith, 18, said: “Our ‘Green Room’ was where the Queen or Royalty stays when they are visiting.
“The week before we had been playing in a pub in Warrington and then we found ourselves in the House of Commons. Around the walls there were paintings that are almost life-size and the whole place was amazing.”
Stoneway – Steve Fisher, Alex Roberts, Danny Smith and Merryn Dowson – won the opportunity to perform in a national competition aimed at raising the importance of intellectual property rights and live music.
One of the songs they performed tells of broken promises within the music industry, so they were a bit nervous about performing in front of people from the business.
Steve said: “It felt like a posh living room that was packed out with press and people from the industry. It wasn’t a small room, but everyone was seated right in front of us because it wasn’t really made for gigs.”
Stoneway can regularly be seen performing in pubs around Warrington. They sent their track to Weaver Vale MP Graham Evans who chose them to represent his constituency in the competition.
As a prize they received Yahama equipment and a trip to Singapore in February, where they will also be asked to perform.
During the event they spoke to the lead guitarist of Whitesnake who complimented their original songs.
Steve said: “What we took from it were a bunch of business cards including one from somebody at EMI. It was a great opportunity to do something like that and be put in front of those people so early in our career.
Picture: Stoneway performing in the Speaker’s Room in Westminster.