JOHN ANSON meets an East Lancashire four-piece determined to establish themselves. . .

IT has taken them a while but four-piece Ignition have finally realised that they could well make a name for themselves.

The nucleus of the band has been together for two years but now they seem prepared to give it their best shot.

"I suppose we've decided to up the ante," said lead singer Martin Scott. "We've had a few setbacks in the past but now it is beginning to really feel right for us."

Part of this new-found confidence can be traced back to appearances this summer at both the Darwen Live and Arts in the Park Festivals.

"We actually played at Darwen last year, it was our first gig," said bassist Andy McCrimmon. "But this year at the festivals we got a really good reaction to both our sets."

Ignition -- the other two members are drummer Hayley McIntyre and guitarist Jon Rhodes -- have four gigs lined up over the next few weeks and will be looking to build up their local following with their live performances.

With sets comprising of some covers and a range of original numbers, the guitar-driven sound of Ignition should play well.

"It depends on where we play as to how many covers we will do," said Jon, "but we only cover songs that we like such as New Order or The Cure."

Perhaps the biggest transformation for Ignition came when the arrival of Hayley on drums.

"We started of doing acoustic songs," said Martin, "but that's basically because we hadn't got a drummer. Now we,re much tighter as a band and really looking to go on from here."

With all four members of the band contributing to song writing duties, their next step is to try and get into the studio to record some of their self-penned numbers.

"It's good that we now have a few people recognising our songs when we play live," said Martin, "and we'd like to build on that."

Ignition play the Malt and Hops in Blackburn on Thursday followed by an open air gig at the Jubilee in Blackburn on Sunday, August 29. They then play the Plough in Oswaldtwistle on September 10 and the 12 Bar in Preston on September 25.