Carl Sentance formed his first band Leading Star in Cardiff in the late 70s. He played lead guitar for the first year or so, then took the job of lead vocals and lead guitar. He started recording original songs around 1979 on cassette tape!After playing with some smaller local bands he joined "Persian Risk" with some of the lads who were in "Leading Star".
He replaced singer John Deverill who left to join the "Tygers of Pan Tang" and recorded his first demo tape around 1980 in an 8 track studio in Wales. Shortly after he recorded his first single "Calling For You". There were only 1000 copies made which makes it very collectable today!
In 1983 he had his first record deal with Neat records which unfortunately didn't turn out to be such a good deal. The band never saw a penny from the single "Riding High" which got to the top 5 in the Rock charts.
They started to become popular and played venues around the country working their way into the London scene gaining interest from papers and magazines. Around this time they also recorded compilation album's such as "Heavy Metal Heroes" and "Sounds and Neat". They managed to find themselves a deal with a publisher and small record company, it was at this time that they headlined the London Marquee. Sadly shortly after this they lost Phil Campbell who went to join "Motorhead".
We got the UK tour with "Motorhead" in 1984. Also in this year we were lucky enough to play on E.C.T, the rock show which  took over from The Tube on channel 4, prime time television! This gave us a lot of exposure. At this time came the 12" single "Two Different" which also did well in the charts. So we kept playing gigs around London and writing for our first album. During this time we changed management and grabbed lots of interest from different labels and also recorded for the Tommy Vance Radio 1 Rock Show.
All this gave Carl and the band the exposure that they needed. Carl then received an offer to go on tour for one month around Europe supporting "Blue Oyster Cult" and singing with "Tokyo Blade", which was a great experience. However there were problems at home with management and within two weeks of finishing the tour he got a phone call from Smallwood Taylor, Iron Maiden's management to go for an audition with "Geezer".
He joined Geezer Butler in 1986 and was working with him for about two and a half years. During this time they produced 20 demo songs, video's, showcases, and Carl co-wrote some of the songs. After two and a half years no record deal was finalized . In the mean time Carl had received an offer from a band called "Monroe" from Wales who had a record deal in Germany. Smallwood Taylor thought it was a good idea for him to join this band, probably foreseeing that Geezer would leave within a few months and join his old friend from "Black Sabbath", Ozzy Osbourne, which is what he did.
Carls time with Monroe was quite short lived around 3 months! He travelled to Germany with them to record demos for a new album of a major label but it just wasn't the right band. After "Monroe" in 1988 Carl came back to Cardiff S.Wales and joined up with some old friends "Tokio Rose", while still looking and auditioning for the 'right band'. Carl auditioned for "Marillion", he was so close to joining the band but unfortunately the big boys from E.M.I. realised along with the band that he was a rock singer and not that arty type that they needed!
Around 1989-90, he had a phone call from Paul Chapman ex "UFO", "Wasted", to go and sing in his band in the US. They recorded demos, videos, and showcased for Sony, in New York. The band had lots of interest but the timing was wrong. It was the grunge bands on the Seattle scene that were taking over from 80's rock. 
So Carl moved to Orlando Florida and joined up with a new manager and reformed "Persian Risk USA" . They had dabbled in a new sound of rock in the early 90's, which should have been a great success, but due to line up changes, then management problems Carl was sadly forced to move back to England.
Carl then joined a theatre group singing and acting in musicals which was a fantastic experience for him and took him to new heights with his vocal abilities. He played many lead roles such as "Judas" in "Jesus Christ SuperStar", "The American" in "Chess", "Sky" in "Guys and Dolls" among others.
In 1999 he joined the band "Krokus", and was pleased to have helped them climb back up the ladder. He recorded the album Round 13, and started writing for the new album. During this time he played lots of big shows, including Basle Football stadium in Switzerland with "AC/DC", playing in front of 30,000 people. He also played festivals like "Bang Your Head" in Germany and lots more. The management then decided to put the original line up back together with Marc Storace the original singer! But what a great time and experience it was for Carl. 
He continued performing in local musicals, also attending auditions in Londons West End, making it through to second audition stages for shows such as Les Miserables and We Will Rock You.
During this time he had the offer to sing for The "Whole Lotta Metal Show" performing in theaters around England. They enjoyed two successful tours, with full auditoriums but sadly again due to management issues could no longer continue.
In 2006 Carl recorded the vocals on the Power Project! CD with Vinny Appice/Jeff Pilson and Carlos Cavazo. Shortly after Carl received a phone call from Don Airey to do some gigs with him in Austria. He then started to write and record for his first solo album, and Don asked him if he would sing some tracks on his album too! "A Light in the Sky" Carl then started to write songs with Don. "A Light in the Sky" was released in 2008 and was an exciting time!
Then a nightmare happened.... for the first time in Carls life he lost his voice! It took about a year for his voice to get back in shape with lots of speech therapy and singing lessons, he found it a very depressing time but after about a year it came back as strong as ever, thank goodness!!
Don Airey/Chris and Harry from Thunder played on Carls solo album "MIND DOCTOR". Carl has had all good reviews for his album and is currently working on his next one!
In 2009 Carl performed with Don Airey and Friends and did a European tour with great musicians such as Rob Harris (Jamiroquai), Laurence Cottle (Eric Clapton/Cher/Sting) Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull). Carl has done various gigs with Don in between his Deep Purple shows while writing and recording at home, and more recently he's got back together with Don to get more involved in the writing side. Dons third solo album is being released on the 22nd Aug, 2011, his album has many great musicians including: The above minus Clive Bunker, Darrin Mooney - Drums (Primal Scream) Keith Airey - Guitar (Colin Blunstone/Zombies) Joe Bonamassa - Guitar and Bernie Marsden - Guitar (Whitesnake).
Carl has also recently toured with "The Classic Rock Show" (formally The australian classic rock show!) performing in Theaters around the country. Another tour is in on the way for Jan 2012. |
