The Echo will be bringing the best of British Power Pop to audiences at PennFest this weekend.

With many years of live performance experience under their belts, The Echo typically blast through a huge selection of pop rock tunes.

Steve Haywood, Steve Daniels, Stuart Smith, Graham Field and Blair King will be taking to the second stage on Saturday and the audience can expect some of the best loved British pop songs from the band.

Lead singer Steve Daniels said: “We call it power pop and it’s basically all our favourite songs, right the way from the sixties up to the present day. We play the songs everyone knows and loves. Everyone is always singing and dancing along.”

The Echo have been performing together for over a year. Having successfully been putting on gigs at venues and festivals around the country in a Who tribute band, in late 2013 three of the band's members joined forces with a new rhythm section and formed The Echo.

Steve said: “We got together about a year and a half ago and we really enjoy what we do. We all just wanted to play the best of British music. We play songs by the likes of The Jam, The Small Faces, The Stranglers, Blur, Oasis, David Bowie, Ocean Colour Scene and more. It’s proper British music.”

The band range in age and experience and Steve believes that this has led them to recreate the best of British music in the best way.

He said: “We all come from the Reading area and our ages range from 21 to early sixties. Our drummer is just out of university and our keyboard player used to be a producer on the Shirley Bassey Show, so we’ve got a huge range of experience amongst us and it probably fits in with the style of music we do. We do newer songs and some classics as well.” 

The band are looking forward to rocking out on the second stage during their PennFest performance on Saturday.

Steve said: “We’re really excited to play PennFest. It’s not every day that an amateur band gets to play in front of thousands of people. There are so many headline acts and it’s just getting bigger and bigger every year.

“We’re doing a 45-minute set at PennFest and we’re sandwiched in between The Hoosiers and The Fratellis. How often can you say something like that? We’re really looking forward to it.

“It’s not Glastonbury, but it’s still an amazing feeling going onto the stage in front of so many people. It’s a real buzz.”

While leading a busy schedule of performances and festivals, including gigs at private functions and shows at The Bricklayers Arms in Downley and The Dashwood Arms in Piddington, Steve says the band do the job purely for their love of music.

He said: “It’s not a career move; we just do it because we love it. We usually do a few festivals a year. To be able to play in front of a large crowd is amazing.”

The group are also set to perform at Rock Bottom, the annual open air family rock concert in Marlow Bottom, where they are second from top of the bill.

Steve said: “As well as PennFest, we’ve got Rock Bottom, which is great fun. We’re playing a longer set there, probably around an hour. It’s a busy time for us but we love performing.

“We’ve got some exciting things going on. ”

Visit www.echopowerpop.co.uk/ for more information about the band and www.pennfest.net for the full PennFest line-up.