THE North by Northwich Festival celebrates the town where it all began for one of the biggest indie bands of the past 30 years.

And so it seems only fitting that among the plethora of events scheduled over the 10 days, there would be a band destined to take the world by storm, taking their first step onto the stage together.

That band is ShadowParty – made up of New Order’s Tom Chapman and Phil Cunningham and Devo’s Josh Hager and Jeff Friedl.

“The band started off while I was living in America in Boston for a few years, and while being off duty with New Order I wanted to reach out to other musicians,” Tom told the Guardian.

“So I put the word out there and the name that kept being given to me was Josh Hager of Devo. We met up and we just got on straight away and started writing music together.

“Then I got Phil Cunningham from New Order to join us and Josh contacted Jeff, and it just grew. We loved the music we were making and we started thinking - ‘wouldn’t it be great to collaborate with other musicians’. We contacted Nick McCabe from The Verve and Denise Johnson and it was really great to work with all kinds of different musicians each bringing their own style.”

Asked about the name, Tom explained that it refers to the shadows that the band members are ready to emerge from.

Tom said: “Some of the musicians involved, particularly myself and Josh, are seen as musicians who are part of huge bands and haven’t always been in the limelight, and we thought ‘let’s form a band together for us to show ourselves as songwriters’.

“We thought it was time to shine a light on ourselves and show what we can do, and we’re really proud of the outcome.”

The band’s first gig will be a free event at The Plaza in Northwich town centre on Friday, May 18.

Just a few minutes’ walk from Memorial Court, it will be free to anyone who wants to go along to watch the debut show before The Charlatans show.

Tom says the North by Northwich festival is a perfect fit for ShadowParty.

“The Charlatans heard our first single - they liked it straight away and asked if we would be interested in taking part in the festival,” Tom said.

“It just felt completely right to us. It’s the perfect place to play our first gig.

“There’s certainly some trepidation about it because it will be the first time we’ve played our music that we’ve been working on for a long time, but I’m really looking forward to it.”

Asked what people can expect from the gig, Tom simply urged people to find out for themselves.

He added: “It’s all a bit unknown and I’m not entirely sure what to expect myself! So really it’s for people to come and discover themselves on the night.”