Cast (British indie band)

Cast are an English indie rock band formed in Liverpool in 1992 by John Power (vocals, guitar) and Peter Wilkinson (bass, backing vocals) after Power left The La's and Wilkinson's former band Shack had split. Following early line-ups with different guitarists and drummers, Liam "Skin" Tyson (guitar) and Keith O'Neill (drums) joined Cast in 1993. On 6 July 2025, Cast announced they had signed to Manchester independent record label Scruff of the Neck. Emerging from the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s, Cast signed to Polydor Records and their debut album All Change (1995), which included the single "Walkaway", became the highest-selling debut album for the label. Further commercial success continued with the albums Mother Nature Calls (1997) and Magic Hour (1999), however a departure in sound on the band's fourth album Beetroot (2001) was met by a poor critical and commercial reaction and contributed to the band's split two weeks after its release. The band re-formed in November 2010 and released their fifth album Troubled Times in November 2011. Bassist Peter Wilkinson confirmed his departure from the band in March 2015, after abruptly leaving a previous tour in December 2014. He was replaced on that tour and in the band by Power's frequent collaborator Jay Lewis, who would also feature on their sixth album Kicking Up the Dust, which was released on 21 April 2017. The band would later officially become a trio of Power, Tyson and O'Neill – with Lewis reverting back to touring bassist – during the recording of their seventh album, 2024's Love Is the Call. Noel Gallagher of Oasis described watching the band live as being like a "religious experience" and they were labelled "The Who of the '90s".[by whom?] It has been suggested that the name "Cast" was taken from the final word on The La's eponymous album (the song "Looking Glass" ends with the repeated line "The change is cast"); John Power has since confirmed this to be true, despite previously playing the link down to coincidence. John Power was previously the bass player, backing vocalist and only constant member along with Lee Mavers in The La's. He left the band on 13 December 1991 after becoming frustrated with the ever-increasing number of aborted studio sessions, having played essentially the same set of songs since 1986 and emerging as a songwriter in his own right. Power later commented that by that point he was more interested in his own songs "than anyone else's". Having switched from bass to rhythm guitar whilst residing at Brucklay House – a near derelict squat in Mossley Hill, where the seeds of dance label 3 Beat Records were sown – Power began jamming with friends and with an ever-changing line-up began to form Cast. The first addition to the band was ex-Shack bassist Peter Wilkinson who had seen Power performing acoustically at a free festival in Liverpool, and who Power had seen around town. Embryonic lineups of the band, featuring several guitarists including Ged Malley, ex-La's members Barry Sutton and Cammy and drummer Russell Brady started gigging in mid 1992 and supported the likes of Pele and The Stairs. Power would later state that he was never happy with these lineups. Unhappy with the band and the demos recorded with Who sound engineer Bob Pridden, he split the band up and extricated himself from his Go! Discs contract in Summer 1993, with whom he was still signed to following his departure from The La's, and set about forming a new lineup with Wilkinson. The first new member to be recruited was Keith O'Neill who had previously played in The Empty Hours, The Windmills and Tommy Scott's pre-Space band The Australians and who Power had seen playing in local band The Windmills, fronted by Howie Payne later of The Stands and then guitarist Liam 'Skin' Tyson, who Wilkinson knew from college and had previously played in Pyramid Dream. When approached to join the band, Tyson initially declined as he had sold all of his musical equipment to teach canoeing at an outdoor centre in Alston in Cumbria. Tyson, who witnessed one of the band's early London shows and commented that "John had these songs, but not the band", joined the band in November 1993 and the new lineup played their first gig in Hull in January 1994. Within months the band secured high-profile support slots with Elvis Costello on two UK tours, including 2 nights at the Royal Albert Hall and Oasis. It was during the tour with Oasis that Polydor head of A&R Paul Adam, surprised that the band had not already been snapped up, approached the band to sign them. The band signed to Polydor on 13 December 1994, three years to the day that Power left The La's. The band released their debut single "Finetime" in July 1995, which went straight in at No. 17. The follow-up single "Alright", a song originally written and performed a handful of times whilst still in the La's under the original title "Fly On" became the band's first top 15 hit in the UK, peaking at No. 13 on the singles chart. The band's debut album All Change, released October 1995 was produced by John Leckie who had previously worked with the Stone Roses and the Verve and had also previously worked with Power in the La's. The album shot to No. 7 on the UK chart, reaching double platinum and went on to become the fastest selling debut album in the history of the Polydor label, outselling the likes of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Who and the Jam. A further two singles were taken from the album in "Sandstorm" (No. 8) and "Walkaway" (No. 9), both top ten hits. A stand-alone single was released in October 1996 titled "Flying", which reached No. 4 on the UK singles chart, giving the band their highest chart position in the UK to date. With their second album Mother Nature Calls, released in April 1997, the "rockier material was now sounding looser and cockier in a Stonesy or Faces-ish way and the moodier tracks awash with melancholic atmosphere". The band worked again with John Leckie. The album peaked at No. 3, reaching platinum and stayed in the top 40 for over 6 months. The album spawned three top ten hits in "Free Me" (No. 7), "Guiding Star" (No. 9), "Live the Dream" (No. 7) and one top twenty hit with the fourth single from the album, "I'm So Lonely" (No. 14), a ballad written during a period of bleak loneliness in a Japanese hotel room. Power revealed that the album title was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, because Mother Nature is always calling because of man's mortality, but also because he was on the toilet at the time he came up with the name. Although The Daily Telegraph proclaimed "Employing the spiritual terms of Power's lyrics, Cast may be the perfect Taoist band. They don't seem to try. Cast just are", the album received largely mixed reviews in the press, Power later blamed this on the fact that it was more of a slow burner than the more instant All Change and claimed that a number of critics later told him that repeated listens had changed their perceptions of the album. By the time the band set to work on their third album, Magic Hour, released May 1999 the Britpop movement was faltering – a number of Cast's contemporaries, such as Kula Shaker and The Seahorses had disbanded, Suede and Mansun were experiencing a drop in record sales from their previous efforts and label mates Shed Seven and Medal had been dropped by Polydor. Amid the changing musical climate, the band enlisted Gil Norton who had previously produced The Pixies and the band moved towards a heavier riff based sound. Power described the album as "21st century rock'n'roll" and "Walt Disney doing Quadrophenia". The first single from "Magic Hour" was "Beat Mama", with the band using loops and samples on the record for the first to give the material a more modern feel, Power described the song as "a call to everyone, a beat for everyone to move to, like the old Kia-Ora advert with the dog and the crows". The song became the band's last top ten hit, peaking at No. 9. In a chart now awash with