“Well, it's certainly been an eventful year! That's probably the understatement of the year as well! It was a wrench to see Steve and Alessio leaving earlier in the year but to hear from "Doc" and "Checco" that they were stepping down as well, it felt like being hit by a sledgehammer! However, I must point out that after working with these guys for so many years now the split is perfectly amicable. Friendships have been formed that will last a lifetime and I wish the guys all the very best for the future and I look forward to hanging out with them again in Italy very soon!

As you can imagine, this left me behind the 8 ball somewhat. Should I carry on with PQ? Or should I lay it to rest now? Having thought the whole thing through and discussed it with friends, family, management and other business contacts I came to the conclusion that I have invested 10 years of my life into Power Quest and have been the driving force behind the band as well as the primary writer, why should I stop now?

At this point I made the decision to recruit a UK based line up for the next incarnation of Power Quest. Having had the additional costs of flying guys in from Europe for so many years, this seemed a logical move on a financial level. It also means that rehearsals will be a lot easier to arrange now and also it will be possible to play live a lot more than it has been in the past.

Unfortunately this has meant that I have had to part ways with bassist extraordinaire Oliver Holzwarth. In the short time we have been working together we have become great friends and I look forward to that continuing in the future. As Oliver is very busy with Blind Guardian and Tarja, amongst other things, there was no way that schedules would work for both parties particularly as now rehearsals are required more than ever. I look forward to meeting up with Oliver at the Tarja show in London on October 19th.”