Home

News

Biography

Buy

Listen

Contact

 

Pete Jennens: Lead Guitar. Gear: Fender, Jackson, Roland. Andy Edwards: Drums Gear: Premier, Paiste. Graeme Leslie: Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar, Guitars Gear: Shine, Ibanez, TC Electronic Graeme and Rodney Matthews The Story So Far... STAIRWAY was founded in October 1978 at beginning of the NWOBHM era. The band was signed in 1990 by Kingsway Music as part of the 1991 White Metal Records compilation CD 'White Metal Warriors' and recorded two tracks, 'Anybody There and 'Walk Away' for the album. The Debut CD for Kingsway Music on the Edge Records label, 'No Rest : No Mercy', released in 1993, and produced by Paul Hodson (Hard Rain / Bob Catley), hailed the band's International popularity and saw it's debut chart entry in the Japanese Import Charts at #48. The band continued to work live, and independently released their second album 'Bleeding Heart' in 1999. Stairway's 3rd album 'On Hallowed Ground' was released in 2002 and gained the band an increased global fan base. Following up on this success, Stairway featured in an un-signed bands contest by AOR Dreamzones.com which they duly won with 38% of the vote! This followed by having the track 'Under the Gun' chosen to feature on a compilation CD 'Defenders of Metal' issued by American Label MIB Music which was released World Wide in 2003. Further to calls for their debut album, Stairway signed a Licensing deal with Retroactive Records in the USA to re-release the 'No Rest: No Mercy' album as a Limited Edition. Gigs to follow this up took place in 2005, followed by an incredible gig appearance in October '05 at Metalfest Germany Co-headlining with Rob Rock (USA) and Narnia (Sweden). STAIRWAY 2008 In 2006 the band released their 4th CD - 'The Other Side of Midnight', a disc of pure Classic Heavy Metal, to rave reviews from fans and media alike and saw its debut Chart entry at #2 in the USA's National College Chart, receiving two Nominations for Best Album and Best Group in the NMW Awards in Hollywood USA. Stairway furthered their profile by securing  slots at UK festival dates co-headlining with Blaze Bayley (ex Iron Maiden) in 2007 and Blitzkrieg in 2008. Rob Jennens in late 2008 after 30 years, retired from the band to dedicate more time to his family. Peter, Andy and Graeme decided they had more to offer and made the decision to continue as a three piece. The first album as a three piece and the band's fifth studio album 'Interregnum' was released in April 2010 on CD and Limited Edition coloured blue vinyl - to round off a successful year, Stairway released the Christmas Digi Single 'Christmas Merry Christmas' on iTunes and Amazon, and followed up with the release in January 2011 of the digi-single 'Enter the Light' mastered by the mighty Dennis Ward of Pink Creme 69, House of Lords and Bob Catley fame. The band started work writing and recording new material and headed off to Germany in Feb 2013 to appear at the festival Full Metal Osthessen. Stairway's sixth studio album 'Power and Glory' saw it's release on May 20th 2016. Recorded over the previous two years and mixed and mastered at Priory Studios in Sutton Coldfield by Greg Chandler (Seventh Angel, My Silent Wake). The band played gigs at Rock Alive in Holland in Sept 2016 and Scruffy Murphy's in B'ham England on Feb 4th 2017 and Stonefest on 15th July 2017 to support the 'Power and Glory' and earlier albums.  Work on new material began in earnest in September 2017 with some exciting things planned for the band's 40th Anniversary year in 2018. The planning for the 7th Stairway album began in late 2019. Sadly due to the Covid pandemic of 2020, recording of the album was postponed until such times that the band could safely start recording. A poll to re-issue the 2015 STAIRWAY - THE DEMO SESSIONS EP was conducted and with the original run selling out in 3 days it was decided to reissue the EP. 'THE DEMO SESSIONS' EP features early Stairway demos from the 1980s and live tracks from 1993 - 6 tracks: 3 studio tracks and 3 live tracks, with a brief written explanation on each track. 23rd of December 2023 a brand new Stairway single 'Tricky Nicky' was released digitally on all platforms and will be the headlining track from a new Stairway studio album. A brand new Stairway Compilation album 'Metal Rising' was released digitally on all platforms on 26th July 2024 and features metal tracks taken from Stairway studio albums.