From the ashes of three Reading bands a new group has emerged.

You may have heard of Glass, or caught them on tour with Pete And The Pirates earlier in the year. Either way, the dark-indie pop four-piece are set to showcase their ear-catching new material with a hometown gig at South Street Arts Centre next Friday.

Glass frontman Matthew Greener, formerly of Morning Runner, who found success in the mid 00s, told The Guide a bit about his new project. "I think as soon as we finished Morning Runner, it was a mutual decision between me and (drummer) Ali (Clewer) to carry on doing music.

"At first we sort of took it quite slowly, it was kind of weird coming out of Morning Runner because it was such a big deal for us and we took our time finding the right people to play with."

Matthew explained that while the band, made up of Nicole Perkins, formerly of Wire Jesus, and James Del Rio, ex-The Race, alongside mentor Alex Alsop, did not want to be weighed down by their musical pasts, they hadn't made a blind move to detach themselves, either.

"I do not think it was a deliberate thing� we have moved on and Nicole brought such a different take on what were doing," he said. "We've got into a lot of different kinds of music so that influences us. It is a lot darker than Morning Runner but still as loud and as melodic and in your face as it was."

Still, as The Guide put it to Matthew, when a band gets their first gigs as tour support for top Reading band Pete And The Pirates, they must have something a bit special.

"It was amazing," Matthew said. "I have known those guys for years, so it was really nice hanging out. It was a big step for us, it was the first live gigs we played! The first show was a disaster, everything broke, but playing the Scala in London was brilliant.

"It's still really early days for us, we just want to let people know we are here, pretty much no one has heard of us and we have deliberately kept it that way. It is just saying 'hi' and getting people hooked."

Tickets cost £4 in advance from www.readingarts.com or call 0118 960 6060.