AN ANDOVER band has celebrated the release of its second single - a Christmas song - from its forthcoming Album.

Big Blue This is a three-piece band of men who live near Andover - Phil Barber, Mike Pickering and Colin Pearce.

The trio, who are all in their 50s, have dabbled in the music scene for much of their lives. Eighteen months ago they decided to try their hands at going professional.

The self-funded group started from scratch, playing in local pubs, which has quickly progressed to bigger gigs including the recent Superbikes event at Thruxton.

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The band released their second single from their forthcoming album Never Too Late, following a launch earlier in the year of their debut single Drift Away, a reworked rendition of the Dobie Gray soul classic. The band's new song is a Christmas song called Are You Ready for Christmas.

The band's release of Drift Away saw the song achieve not only UK airplay, but also reached audiences in Canada and the United States, across Europe and as far away as Singapore.

Phil said: "We're just a local three-piece, who are really an upbeat rock band. That said, we are quite flexible and have a good range of styles we can play.

"When we formed the band we were just interested to see if we could do it and have some measure of success, and also represent a generation of people who might have had that talent but never tried to do anything with it. We want to show we can rock with the best of them, and have some fun along the way."

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Big Blue This has a number of events coming up over the festive period, including playing at the Christmas Lights switch-on in Andover on Friday, November 17, where the band will perform on the Riverside Park Stage at 4.45pm. The band will also play at the Forester Arms on Friday, December 1.

In January the band will release a third single called Suited and Booted, with an album to follow in the second quarter of 2024.

Phil said: "You never know what is going to happen, and success can be measured in so many ways, but this year I think we could safely say we've had more successes than not, including airplay around the world.

"For us, we'd like to get our music out to the masses and hopefully build some momentum going into 2024. We're on all the main streaming services and are hoping to take our sound and performance to more venues and more audiences because we really enjoy what we do.

"We're all very committed to the band and our music, and we're just a friendly bunch of lads, with no inflated egos, just trying to give as good as we can get and have some fun along the way."

More information on the band can be found on Spotify, including the new single.