Ok, here's our excuse for the corny name Cherry Lips. It was a week before the band's first real gig and the guy printing the promo leaflets says, 'Girls, I need to know the name NOW!!!!' Someone pronounced those fatal words and they kind of blocked out any more intelligent ideas.

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That was December 2005. The band had been bullied into being about a year before by lead singer Stefi who was fed up with fronting sniggering boy bands and provincial glam and punk losers. She wanted to go rock n' roll and she wanted to do it with the girls.

So first she forces Karima to throw away her classical guitar and dream of becoming the greatest girl bass player of all time.

Then she gets together Terry on drums and Giulia, your typical willowy, melancholy lead guitarist, and after a few months grinding out covers in a freezing cold shed in Grezzana, a village mainly famous for its murders these days, the band started playing bars and small clubs.

Covers mainly. But always played with ambition and flair. Aerosmith, AC/DC, Joan Jett, Cyndi Lauper, Motorhead. Terry was the first who couldn't stay the pace. And maybe Stefi ain't the easiest person in the world to get on with. Terry was replaced by Serena, who already had plenty of experience playing for metal and punk bands and was right on Stefi's wavelength.

At this point the band started to write their own songs. Mainly it was Stefi writing the lyrics and getting the main theme and the others working hard on the arrangements and riffs. Finally all that musical education imposed by anxious bourgeois parents could really be turned into something exciting.

So, Lucille's, Verona, Christmas 2005. The local band BULLFROG were the main bill. But Stef, Karima, Giulia and Serena climbed up on the stage, opened their bottles of Becks and got the audience rocking. It was a memorable night. There was a full house. By the end even the stiffest and dopeyest were dancing.

'What I most want,' says Stefi, 'is that people at our gigs HAVE FUN.'

But it wasn't much fun dealing with Giulia's parents. Her father wasn't happy with her being in the band and pretty soon she was having to think of an endless series of excuses to make it to that Grezzana shed and the concerts. She couldn't even walk out of the house with a guitar. The band had to bring one for her.

Still, the gigs went on! The high points were a show with Thee STP at LeKlub (Verona) in March 2007, with Angel City Outcasts (an American punk band) in 20th January at Jack the Ripper (Vicenza) and with Antiproduct (an English punk band) in 27th April at Rock Planet (Cervia).

Then disaster struck. With a whole string of summer gigs set up Cherry Lips were ready to break out of the provinces and go national... when Giulia ran into serious trouble with her parents and dropped out (may her guitar rest in peace). The gigs had to be cancelled.

After so much work, it was a heart-breaking moment. The band could have folded. Instead, after a couple of weeks screaming and shouting and cursing and kicking the dog, they looked each other in the eyes and decided to raise the stakes. Stefi had already found a producer and a studio for a first CD. So while the girls looked around for a really first rate lead guitarist (without boy or parent problems) they began to record. By the time drums, bass and rhythm were down they'd found Elisa: a genius lead with a solid musical education at the conservatory behind her, a girl who could add a real touch of class to a great debut CD: CHERRY LIPS.

Be sure, this is just the first chapter in what looks set to be a long and glorious bio...

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