The emerging band who met at Sunderland primary school preparing for biggest show yet on home city stage

Post Rome have been friends for more than 15 years after meeting in the reception class at Fulwell Infants School.

Over the years, vocalist and bassist Jasper Watson, vocalist and guitarist Ben Goodfellow and drummer Jamie Martin realised they had a shared passion for music and cemented their friendship further by starting a band when they were in Year 6.

Now aged 20 and 21, the trio have racked up 30,000 streams on Spotify, been championed by BBC Introducing in the North East and have sold out Pop Recs.

As they aim to build their music career, they’re gearing up for their biggest gig to date: a launch gig for single Different Kids at Independent on Friday, March 6.

Jasper says it’s great being in a band with mates he went through infants, Fulwell Juniors and Monkwearmouth School with.

“Usually music is the thing that brings bands together and they become friends from that, but it was the other way round for us. We were friends first and the music only brought us closer,” he explained.

Over the years, the band, whose sound is best described as alternative rock, has had various incarnations, but became Post Rome in 2016.

Speaking about how the name came about, Jasper explained: “Jamie had been seeing a girl in college who’d gone to Italy. She sent him a postcard declaring her love for him through The 1975 lyrics.

“We’d gone for a walk and I’d asked him what had happened ‘Post Rome’ and we both turned to each other as we liked the phrase.”

The band juggle their day jobs – Jasper at BT, Ben at Nissan and Jamie in a function band – with their own band rehearsals and spent much of last year recording, with the hopes of building their fan base through their atmospheric live gigs.

*Post Rome play Independent in Sunderland on March 6. Doors are at 7.30pm and the gig is for 16s and over. Tickets are £6 from independentsunderland.com. Different Kids is available now on streaming platforms.