‘The past months have been like the old days, which is brilliant’

Yeovil Town Football Club open the gates to Huish Park for the first time this season and welcome fans to their game against St. Albans City in the National League South.

While relegation was a hard hit to take, a new owner in Martin Hellier, a stadium brought back to life and fresh ideas for the matchday experience will mean that fans will return to a completely different proposition to the one they left in May.

Among the changes is the creation of a ‘fanzone’ behind the Thatchers Stand, the home terrace, in which local bands will be invited to perform and get the supporters in the mood to sing their hearts out during the game.

First up are Yeovil music legends STORM, who have been part of the local scene for over two decades, and their founder, Simon Keavall, spoke to Somerset’s Alive! about their career and kicking off the fanzone entertainment this season.

Simon admitted that the band have probably not done as much publicity as they should have done but they haven’t really needed to, such has been their popularity.

Simon said: “We have probably kept out of the limelight and should have been in it a lot more as we have been going for a long, long time.

“The band that I had many years ago, we had too much work so never had time to do anything and there was no real social media back then – that was old days then and if you didn’t see us, you didn’t see us and that was the end of it.”

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STORM have been in existence for over two decades with only Covid and a short hiatus breaking their run of success.

Simon continued: “I started it in 1999 and I found three guys to form a four-piece and we stayed together for 16 years.

“The first four years it was very hard to get work as nobody wanted another covers band but then, all of a sudden, it sort of went mental and everybody was phoning me up all the time – can you do this, can you do that and we had some amazing gigs.

“The Home Farm Festival started through us and we played with some big names and some massive gigs.”

So, what is the secret to the band’s success? Simon answered: “I think the longevity of it all was that we were all pretty nice guys and we always talked to everybody afterwards and we played whatever they wanted and we just played all the stuff that was massive at the time.

“We loved playing it and it just went from there. We all got on so well which is why it lasted and while we are all good players, it was getting on as a team that was the most important thing.”

All good things come to an end and after nearly 17 years together, the feeling was that breaking up the band was the only way forward.

Simon said: “Our last gig that we played as the original STORM was December 23, 2016 at the Quicksilver Mail as my singer wanted to give it in as he had had enough and we had all really drained ourselves out.

“Little did we realise what was around the corner in a couple of years time with Covid but we had all finished and that was our last gig but within about four months, I remember speaking to my singer again and he was asking, ‘are we going to be doing anything else?’

Simon explained that despite calling it a day, it wasn’t as easy as that: “After that amount of time, you cannot just kill it, it is in the blood so we started to arrange a restructured band with the same singer and same bass player but different drummer and it all went brilliantly and we rehearsed and got a load of work ready and then Covid hit and that was that, it was ‘Good Night Vienna’ and, basically, they all left.”

The end of lockdown meant a new dawn for the band and Simon said he was keen to bring a new incarnation of the group to the local music scene.

He continued: “When we came out of Covid, it was up to me as it was my band, I took a couple of months to figure out what I was going to do – whether I would keep the name or change it but a lot of people said I would be mad to get rid of the name because it has been so prominent and people know who you are.

“Everybody changes band members but keeps the name, so that is exactly what I did and we started the new STORM in 2021 but our first gig was not until August last year.

“We now have a female singer and that works really well, a drummer who is good and a bass player I have known for many years and while the music scene was hit hard when Covid struck – everything stopped – and it was very harsh around here [in Somerset] and I didn’t think it would ever get back to what it was.

“The last two or three months have been just like the old days which is brilliant and we have loads of work again.”

So, how did they get the nod to be the first band to play the Yeovil Town fanzone? It would seem it was by popular demand.

Simon told Somerset’s Alive!: “We did a gig for Martin Hellier [Yeovil Town F.C. owner] many years ago at his house, my bass player knew him really well, and he text me about a month ago and asked if we would be interested in playing, as he wanted to put on music like most Premier League clubs do and if those who have the space usually put a band on to get everybody ready for the game.

“He said that our name had come up as he had put up a poll on Twitter [now known as X] and the fans want to see us and we have been speaking about it since and it has been a massive rush this week.”

It has been all talk about the gig and Simon continued: “We had a meeting on Monday at the football club – I have been a Yeovil fan forever – and he said, ‘come and have a look, the stage is being built’ and I thought ‘stage, he’s building a stage?’ and he’s built a massive stage round the back of the Thatchers Stand and it is all going to be covered and we are just going to turn up at 11am and set up the gear and play for 90 minutes just before the game kicks off.”

Simon admitted that there has been a huge demand to know more about the gig and he can’t wait to perform for the Yeovil fans.

He said: “We’ve had a massive response on Facebook, it’s been crazy, everyone wants to know what is going on and when but you can’t see us unless you have a ticket for the game as it is in the fanzone area.

“I know that Martin wants to make it an ongoing thing throughout the season.”

STORM are Simon kearvell (guitars and backing vocals), Di Anne (lead vocals), Paul Holbrook (bass) and Chris David (drums and backing vocals).

Check out where STORM are playing on their Facebook page HERE.