Retrostar started after the split of Year Zero. Peter Campbell and John Kenny decided to part company with Jimmy Johnstone. Constant rock music was doing Peter's head in and it was clear that Jimmy was either unable or unwilling to do anything else. Nothing much was happening between John and Peter, as they were taking a break from it as Year Zero was causing them untold stress.

Peter and bass player Gordon Hay, who wrote songs together during the life of Year Zero decided to try and do something during this hiatus so it made sense to ask John to contribute his skills and try to improve what they had. They started off with dusting off a few songs Peter and Gordon had written and a couple of John's that never saw the light of day with Year Zero and tried them with a proper band sound. It was quite apparent, even at that point, how the sound was going to develop. They are largely into melody and this has been reflected in the music they have produced since. It has, of course, developed somewhat and with more confidence but the style remains largely of the indy, guitar pop variety. To start with, programmed drums had to suffice in the absence of a drummer and even though they did get a concrete offer from an old friend they didn't want to go down the same old paths. A case of too much water under the bridge really.

Drummers have always been a problem for Retrostar. They had the offer as detailed but decided to do the right thing and try and find someone else so that the same problems encountered before wouldn't be encountered again. A noble idea but much more difficult in practice. They chanced upon Stuart McGowan's "drummer seeks band" advert in McCormick's music shop in Glasgow in March 2003 and Stuart was added to the Retrostar lineup. This lineup lasted until February when it was obvious that Stuart could no longer remain in Retrostar. They were getting more and more into the swing of gigging and were hoping to build a reputation based on good songs but Stuart wanted to get into merchandising and making as much money as possible then getting upset when his ideas were invariably disagreed with.

Then they found Jim, who slotted in great. Stuart was and is a technically great drummer but Jim brought something different to the band: Jim, when required, could do all the fancy fills expected of a great drummer but knows that elaborating - at every opportunity - is not necessarily going to make the song any better. Less is more! They originally thought that Jim was the final piece in the jigsaw to achieve the sound that they were looking for and for a time, it was sounding good but the only problem was that Jim was playing with another band, which he played in before Retrostar, so fair enough, he quit Retrostar because it was too much on his musical plate really. Retrostar are still very friendly with Jim, unlike Stuart, who expected far too much, far too soon.

However, with the arrival of Brendan, Retrostar now have, in addition to technically great drumming, a former drumming professional who is not frightened to throw his ideas into the mix which are always welcome to improve the sound. Brendan also does backing vocals and three part harmonies are now part of the Retrostar sound.

Retrostar are not and never will be your classic Art School intellectual, bohemian 'rock and roll' band. They just want to write and play and be judged on that. That's not too much to ask, is it?