Music

But is that pronounced Substance or Sub-Stance? '"We don't mind, whatever you prefer," said the band when asked - maybe it depends on the circum-stance. Bad jokes aside, Mark says the name came from a quote from Tommy Ramone, the original drummer for legendary punk band, The Ramones who said, "Eliminate the unnecessary, concentrate on the substance." Add a hyphen, and what have you got? - A band name!

What about influences? "There's one obvious one" says vocalist Nick, referring to his Ramones t-shirt. However the list of influences seems to be outweighed by the list of similarities as the band reel off a list of groups they've been compared to. The Dead Kennedy's and Bad Religion are understandable, but Joy Division? Whatever the comparison, let's hope Sub-Stance concentrate on their own brand of 80's influenced punk.

The Sub-Stance live in session

Hailing from the Grantham area, Nick, Mark and Tom met in school and through other contacts, as Nick puts it they started, "smashing instruments together and screaming things," in his garage. Although the band were forced to take a break when drummer Tom broke his arm snowboarding (or sledging as the BBC's Rob Underwood would lead us to believe) bassist Rob completed the line-up, which has now been together in its current form for 2 years.

Their first gig took place at Long Bennington Village Hall, which the band say went well despite some setbacks, which culminated in Rob's, 'casserole' hitting the floor before the gig started - put it this way, he certainly wasn't cooking. Luckily that didn't put them off as The Sub-Stance have gone on to perform in and around Grantham and are looking to gig around the Lincoln area.

Their demo EP, recorded in Nottingham, is available now and the guys are looking to record some new material, "when it's all been fine tuned."