Last Great Dreamers awaken...The great lost rock ‘n’ roll band prove that if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing twice!

Last Great Dreamers might just be the greatest band you’ve never heard. Their sound is a mouth-watering confection of hard-edged power pop and British glam rock. Their songs are written next to the warm glow of a radio dial. Their story is one of ambition cut short by disillusionment and kicked to the kerb by tragedy – before being rebuilt two decades later as a tribute to friendship, family and fandom.

Originally known as Silver Hearts, the band formed in London in 1989 around songwriters Marc Valentine (vocals/guitar) and Slyder (guitar/vocals). They quickly made waves on the UK club scene, and in 1993 they rechristened themselves Last Great Dreamers. Decked out in smart but flamboyant ’70s tailoring, the band became a fixture at London’s legendary Marquee club, where they fine-tuned songs for what would become their debut album, Retrosexual, released in 1994. The following year, they picked up a nomination for Best New Band in the annual Kerrang! Awards, as well as support tours with some high-profile US rock acts, and they appeared to be destined for success.

However, with the musical landscape changing, the Marquee closing and a hard-sought record deal collapsing, Last Great Dreamers felt themselves sliding back down the pole of stardom. And in November 1997, bruised from the rough landing, they disbanded. But worse was to come, as disappointment turned to devastation following the unrelated deaths of three friends who had played important roles in Last Great Dreamers’ history: their soundman Chris, their roadie Porky and their tour manager (and Marc’s cousin) Ray.

After Ray’s funeral in 2003, the band said goodbye to each other and went their separate ways, desperate to leave London behind and make new lives for themselves. While Marc decamped to Los Angeles amid rumours that he’d joined a cult, Slyder moved to Somerset, where he opened a fashion and jewellery boutique, and set about transforming a church into a house – his own religious conversion. He also hung up his guitar. The dream was over.

In many ways, splitting up had meant growing up. And for many bands the story would have ended there – with its members drifting quietly into middle-age while their amused children showed press cuttings to visiting friends. But in 2011, as fans on the internet started to reminisce about Last Great Dreamers, their comments caught the attention of Slyder, who nearly a decade on from his last contact with Marc had started to go misty-eyed himself.

“I stumbled over a Silver Hearts / Last Great Dreamers fan page,” he says. “There were people out there still talking about us – and that got me going.” Through a fan group on Facebook, he made contact with ex-members and fans of the band. There was shady intrigue, too, when a mystery fan contacted Slyder claiming to be in possession of some of the band’s master tapes, which he’d bought at a car-boot sale – presumably off the back of a lorry, as the recordings were long thought to have been stolen along with the van they were travelling in.

Keen to recover the tapes, Slyder travelled to London, where he took the opportunity to do some clothes shopping in Greenwich. It was here, in a retro boutique, that he bumped into a mutual friend of his and Marc’s and learnt that Marc was back in the UK.

The magnet had been activated: the songwriters were slowly being drawn together, to resume both their friendship and their musical partnership.

In early 2014, the pair were finally reunited. And as they sat and listened to their old recordings and talked about the past, they discovered that they both felt a longing to reignite Last Great Dreamers’ pilot light, though they had no idea what would happen once it was burning. With the blessing of Steve Grainger and Paul Harrison, the drummer and bassist who had helped take the band to the heights they achieved in the mid-’90s, Marc and Slyder recruited a new rhythm section: bassist Ian Scruffykid and drummer Ginge – two names that were already part of the band’s history (Ian was a member of the road crew; Ginge was Silver Hearts’ drummer).

As news of the band’s resurrection spread, increasing numbers of supporters got in touch to cheer them on. “The fact that there are still people out there that it means something to has really made it worthwhile,” says Marc. “People come up to me and say, I’ve had your album in the car for 20 years.”

“It feels great to hear that,” says Slyder. “That’s what drives us on and makes us want to do it – those people, those individuals.”

To reward the fans, they mastered and pressed up a new album from the tapes that Slyder had recovered: an 11-track collection of unreleased studio recordings made between 1995 and 1997, titled Crash Landing In Teenage Heaven. The reviews were unanimous in their praise. “[The LP] represents one of the more breathtaking returns in some time,” said Uber Rock, “and, irrespective of the hows, whys and whos, more than deserves its moment in the sun.”

In September 2014, Last Great Dreamers played their first show in 17 years, at Camden’s Purple Turtle, and the fans kept their promises by turning up en masse. Whatever the band once had, they’d clearly only pocketed it all those years ago. “Last Great Dreamers pick up where they left off,” reported Classic Rock magazine. “This venue has not seen so much fun on a Sunday night for a long time.”

After a handful of regional gigs, the band are primed to move up a gear in 2015 with a fresh batch of shows and a new single, Supernature Natural – a two-and-a-half-minute blast of raucous yet hook-laden power-pop.

“Entertaining, spirited and infectious… Last Great Dreamers have all the ingredients to be popular again.”

– Richard Thompson, Classic Rock magazine

“Armed with a back catalogue as strong as theirs, this could just be Marc, Slyder and the boys’ time.”

– Dan Hayes, Uber Rock