Anne-Marie Helder: vocals, guitars
Jonathan Edwards: keyboards
Paul Davies: lead guitars
Gavin Griffiths: drums
Alun Vaughan: bass guitars


Panic Room is a British rock band who released their debut album 'Visionary Position' in April 2008. Melding together a fusion of rock, pop, indie, jazz, blues & even touches of folk and roots, Panic Room's first album was totally eclectic... and yet heralded the dawn of a totally new sound - the sound of Panic Room.

Embarking on their first Live Tour in the spring of 2008, Panic Room brought as much musical prowess to the stage as they had demonstrated in their studio recordings, and while the rave reviews flooded in from rock magazines & e-zines, the band had a hugely successful first tour of the UK. The 5-piece outfit, fronted by stellar frontwoman Anne-Marie Helder, won over audiences everywhere with their infectious power, passion & enthusiasm. Early in 2009, Panic Room were voted 'BEST NEW BAND' at the British CRS Awards. 

Panic Room live is where the band really shines, with a huge & stunning dynamic range - from balls-out metal/rock to the most beautiful & delicate of ballads, & through all kinds of intoxicating moods in-between. And, following the success of their carefully-crafted first studio release, the band aimed to capture even more of this live energy on their follow-up album; 'Satellite', which is due for release in Autumn 2009.

With this in mind, the group headed into Sonic One studios in Llangennech, Wales, to spend a power-chord-packed fortnight recording 'as live', under the expert eye of master engineer Tim Hamill (who had mixed their first album). 

This is a rare and risky method, though it used to be the only way... but now, it is generally favoured by only a minority of bands, who are keen to achieve a 'live' and 'raw' energy, and feel sure enough that they can capture the essence & precision of their music by going at it, full-pelt, in one take at a time! This is how Panic Room have recorded most of their second album, 'Satellite' with some tracks even being 'first-takes'. And any over-dubs that have followed were merely to add layers, depth & harmonies to the songs.

~ Rough mixes of the new album are available to hear / download now, on a special pre-release 'Sampler' -

as shown on this page, but also available at www.panicroom.org.uk 

~ Panic Room are also taking pre-orders for the new album now (Aug09),

in a Special Edition that will feature extended artwork and a bonus 4-track EP,

recorded at the same time as the album.  

Click here to find out about pre-ordering your copy.

Background Information

The 5 musicians in Panic Room have known each other for several years, & have been friends as well as co-band-members for all that time. Their shared history is one of the special things that bonds the band, and this is evident in their strong, close energy both on stage and off. They are proud to have been through a lot of life's ups & downs, music, & touring together.

4 of the band - Helder, Edwards, Davies & Griffiths - were previously in award-winning band 'Karnataka' together; and many of the band had also collaborated with bassist Alun Vaughan at some point in the past too. Each band member has widely varying tastes in music, & also musical backgrounds - e.g. Helder has performed both solo and in rock, funk & folk bands for several years; Griffiths has drummed for every style of music from blues to jazz to prog (and is currently also resident drummer with the Fish band); and Vaughan's bass playing has blessed most jazz line-ups around the UK (!), along with forays into blues, soul, gypsy jazz, rock, and solo bass compositions.

But it is the medley of these styles, experiences and tastes that have given the line-up of Panic Room such ultimate freedom to create any music they want to; and which means there are no boundaries... just the enormous adventure of creating new songs together, which can each take on whichever flavour & direction they need to. 

There is no deliberate drive to be 'different' or eclectic with each of their tracks, just for the sake of it; it just so happens that when you throw all the band's different ideas and styles together, & give each new tune the creative freedom it needs, to go where it wants to go, the result is often totally unique - and very strong - each time. And it's also true that you get more freedom to explore like this, when a band is still so young.

The 2nd album will create its own sound and direction too; and it is just as eclectic as the first, despite its symbiotic energy from recording all the tracks live & in such a short period of time. If anything, 'Satellite' will prove to be an even more widely-eclectic album than 'Visionary Position', and may make the band even harder to pigeon-hole!

But, this is a matter for journalists alone, and Panic Room are in no rush to crow-bar themselves into a category or limited genre, right now.

Some long-standing fans, who used to follow the 4 'Karnataka' ex-members years ago, may feel that there are flavours of the celtic / prog / rock sound that set that particular rock group apart, back then. And certainly, Jonathon Edwards was a main writer with that band and so his 'sound' can be heard emerging through in some places; Panic Room was his brainchild in the first place. But as with all musicians, his sound has evolved and developed ten-fold since that time; and his songwriting has proven to be a talent that knows no bounds, stylistically or emotionally. And as a keyboard-player, some of his playing on 'Satellite' and the accompanying EP will have listeners finding more comparisons with Stevie Wonder and some of the great jazz/funk players than anything else!

Overall, 'Panic Room' is a creative place where anything goes. And it's cool to either rock, or to chill out.

*Step inside the Panic Room ~ feel the love, feel the freedom, feel the music.*

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"I think the sound that we have created is something that is uniquely ours, and we can't wait to share this music with you. At the end of the day, the reason we're doing this is because we feel that we have to... we're driven to create these songs and for us it's all about making connections; musicians and audience connecting through the music. So we're looking forward to making the connection with all of you..."   Jon Edwards