Its slightly old news by this point anyway, but last week Wil Francis of Aiden announced that the band would be splitting up after their next album.

It’s always sad to watch a good band go. I’ve seen many in my time – Hell is for Heroes, Reuben, Hundred Reasons, to name a few..

Having never been in a band, its hard to imagine the pressures that go on in the member’s heads. You start out young, enthusiastic. It’s what you’ve always wanted to do. You play, people like it. You play more, more people like it. Maybe you sell a few demo CDs.

Then one night you’re playing and some guy turns up. He’s from a label. They’ve heard you guys play, you sound pretty good. He hands over a card.

You keep in touch. You write. You send over some tracks to the guy. You sign, you record an album.

The label puts it out and you wait for the money to roll in. The fame, the women, everything you dreamed of. You imagine your band’s name in lights above an arena, hordes of crowds chanting for you.

The money trickles in slowly. That’s fine, its the first album they say. The next one will do better. Or the next one.

You tour more, you write more. Your band is getting better and better. It feels so close, like you’re heading for something you never quite reach. The money’s never quite enough to live on. It was fine when you were younger, you were barely at home, didn’t have rent to make or bills to pay.

Now your friends have houses, wives, kids. They’ve settled and you haven’t, you’re still out there chasing the dream. People wonder why you’re still doing it. The scene you grew up in is gone. The bands either got too big and moved on, or never big at all and fizzled out. The records don’t sell like they used to. Even the shows aren’t as full, the fans have gone on to the next big thing – another group of teens that think they’ll own the world. You don’t know whether to envy them or pity them..

RC xx