Casino zone

Casino Zone are a five piece, unsigned, alternative rock band who originate from Birmingham, UK but are now largely based in Manchester, UK and were formed in 2008. The band has been tipped for success by such publications as ARTROCKER magazine. They headlined the O2 Academy Birmingham in April 2010.
Members
*Thomas Duggins: Vocals and guitar
*Thomas Hawkley: Guitars and backing vocals
*Daniel Fallon: Guitars and keyboards
*Jeremy Gadd: Bass guitar
*James Callaghan: Drums
History
The band's members met at King Edward's School, Birmingham and in 2008 they released 3 tracks (Who's Your Lover Now?, Public Transport and Case of Difference) on their myspace.. Recording time was limited when they moved away to university in 2008 but this changed in September 2009 when Tom Duggins relocated to Manchester to study at Manchester Metropolitan University which meant Duggins, Callaghan and Hawkley could write songs together.
January 2010 saw the first major Casino Zone gig, at the Actress and Bishop public house in Birmingham. They then proceeded to perform regular gigs in both Mancheter and Birmingham. The biggest gig of their career to date is their headline slot at the Birmingham Academy 3 on 1st April 2010. They have also supported The Cheek, a Suffolk based indie-rock band at Moho Live in Manchester later that month.
The band have receieved frequent airplay of several tracks on the BBC Introducing show on BBC Radio West Midlands . They also appeared on the Weekly Fix show on University of Manchester's student radio station Fuse FM in December 2009, with Callaghan, Duggins and Hawkley performing No Reward and Who's Your Lover Now? acoustically. They also particpated in the award winning, Record Breakers where Tom Duggins broke the record for the quickest time to eat three mince pies.
The band are named after the Casino Night Zone level on the Sega Megadrive game Sonic the Hedhehog 2 as Duggins believed there was "nothing better than to name a band after something you had loved so much as a child"
Influences and Response
Casino Zone describe their music as "proto-pop" and cite their influences as At the Drive In, Sonic Youth, The Smiths and Paul Simon.
In the very short period of time they have gigging together, Casino Zone have attracted a large amount of critical acclaim: the Birmingham Evening Mail hailed them as "local heroes" and Artrocker magazine saying that "the most endearing thing about Casino Zone is that they don’t seem to take themselves too seriously. Their rocky-documentary style of storytelling could easily unravel if a hint of pretence was detected, but they manage to get away with it by being almost ironic in their grandeur - spiky, over-the-top guitar parts; wandering bass lines and serious speaky bits."<ref name="artrocker"/>
Recording History
In early 2010 Casino Zone caught the eye of Ed Tracy, who was signed to Parlophone until 2009. He agreed to produce the band's February 2010 recording of No Reward and following the success of these sessions, they began work on Loralie and So Why Then The Blues? in April 2010.
The band hope to release 4 track LP in the Autumn of 2010, and are working on an album of entirely new material which they hope to release in late 2010 or early 2011 through their own record company Old Measty Records.<ref name="mailheroes"/>

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