A ISLE of Wight band from the 1980s, recently rediscovered, is releasing an album next month.

Ambitious punky pop band Cassie cut numerous tracks at both local and mainland recording studios in the early '80s and had real dreams of making the big time.

They had a settled line-up of Debbie Barker, Nigel Hayles, Eric Biggs and Hugh Kim Lewis, wrote their own songs, had a good local following and came close to gaining a major record deal.

It never happened. Amazingly, it has now — 36 years after they disbanded.

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Thirteen of their tracks, written by their vocalist Debbie and their late guitarist Nigel, are about to be released on an exciting new vinyl album called The Light Shines On.

This will be available on the American-based Reminder Records label. It will be available to purchase both online and in some British record shops. All the tracks will also be available to download from many leading sites.

Their singer, now known as Debbie Cole, like the other two surviving members of the band, is excited that their music is about to be enjoyed by a worldwide audience.

Since those Cassie days, she worked for Capital Radio for 13 years, mainly on their Breakfast Show with Chris Tarrant.

"When we really wanted this to happen, it wasn't to be. Now, out of the blue, it's like an unexpected gift. This makes it even more special somehow. When we first got the call from Jeremy Thompson in America, I thought it was a wind-up. I'd also become conditioned to expect empty promises.

"To see those songs that Nigel and I wrote all those years ago finally seeing the light of day is so amazing. Our music will now be there for everyone to hear, serving as a testament to Nigel and what we created. Sadly he is no longer with us but he will now live on forever through this," said Debbie.

Now when she looks back at the lyrics, they reflect on her life in those times when she wanted to move on and up, which most teenagers of that period would relate to.

In 2016 Jeremy Thompson, then of Sing Sing Records in America, found the never released AKA Records Cassie single from 1982 on YouTube. This featured Falling and Will You. He loved them and after three years he finally tracked down their drummer Hugh Kim Lewis.

Hugh told me: "I couldn't believe after all those years that someone wanted to invest the time and effort into finally releasing the single. It came out in May. When I told him we actually had an albums worth of material, he liked the idea and decided to release it on his new record label."

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The tracks were digitally sent to Brooklyn and then on to Germany, where Tim Warren re-mastered everything. They were then sent back to America to be pressed. The band have been blown away by the enhanced sound.

Some of the tracks, which all also feature bass player Eric, were first recorded on the Island, at Tim Muncaster's East Cowes studio and at Rod Gammon's Sound Studio in Brighstone.

The album will now be released all around the world. They could hardly believe it when the Japanese release cover was sent to them.

Keen Island music fans will still remember some of the other names of the band, before the late Island-born music mogul, Wilf Pine, changed it to Cassie. These include High Voltage, Black Dog and Flirt.

The likely release date for the Light Shines On album is early December.

Personally, I am privileged to have been asked to write the sleeve notes.