The new millennium kicks off with a real surprise for The Secrets when in February Gavin receives a call from Eardrum, a Soho media agency who have been comissioned by British Telecom to produce a series of radio advertisements promoting their getoutthere.bt.com website. Having narrowed down a short list of top 10 MP3s from the getoutthere charts, Eardrum select The Secrets' track Depart (a number 5 hit in December 1999) to feature in the campaign.

Eagerly granting permission for use of the track, The Secrets gain their first genuine national radio airplay as the track is rotated heavily on stations such as Virgin, XFM and Mercury.

Spurred on by their success, The Secrets sign up to several more prominant MP3 websites inclucing peoplesound.com.

Impressed by the recogintion that these sites afford unsigned bands, the group release a second MP3 single to the getoutthere chart on 12 May, this time choosing their well known stalwart It Could Be You. Gavin:

"It Could Be You has long been a real live favourite both with the band and audiences so we are optomistic that it should do pretty well. It's a stonking pop classic and deserves to be heard!"

The track peaks the following week at number 12 in the Indie/ Rock/ Pop chart.

Back in the 'real' world, Simon enters the band in a national competition run by Mercury FM, sending in a demo tape. Without further ado, the band finds itself in the area final contested at Watford's very own Flag & Firkin on 24 May.

Despite their recent success, Simon decides this is the moment to take the group back to basics, insisting upon a set list comprised of notably older poppier material. Despite some strong opposition from certain quarters of the band, he gets his way and the band take the stage last on the bill. Storming through their 3 song performance of I'll Help You, A Strange Place and Just For Me to a ravenous audience, the band are unlucky to miss out on winning the round.

This coupled with the growing differences in opinion on the band's direction causes Simon to have a real search of conscious and, in early June meets Gavin to announce that he wants to put the band on ice.

Gavin: "Naturally I was very disappointed if not entirely shocked. It has been a very difficult to keep the level of interest up all these years being an unsigned band as we are. Simon, Rich and Neil really are like brothers to me though and, if it didn't feel right to them to keep playing, who am I to force them? Still, who knows what could happen. I'm sure Simon and I will still write and as for The Secrets...never say never!"

So The Secrets now exist solely as a 'cyber-band', and who knows where that could lead? Most importantly, the music remains...