No Flash are a band. They’re a band in Manchester, a city full of other bands, gloomy gigs, shifty promoters, and people who like to tell you how all of those things mean much more to them than they do to you.

It can be hard to be heard above the din.

Being in a new band is tough – and that’s partly why bands are bands: you may well be penniless and frustrated, but at least you’re all penniless and frustrated together, right?

I spoke to No Flash, a band who are steadily and determinedly grinding their way through the same boggy musical ground trudged by every Mancunian band before them.

They shed light on what it is like to balance desperate ambition with the drudgery of real life as a band on the way up. Their demeanour flitted from partly-thrilled, via partly-weary, and finally to partly-confused by the dizzying scale of their task.

But above all they were infectiously fun, insightful and happy to be doing something they love.

If you’ve ever considered taking tentative steps along the grimy tightrope of New Bandhood, listen to this and decide if you still really want it…

No Flash: A New Band’s Perspective

MORE: myspace.com/noflashtheband

Photo by Chris Walker