THE end of Steps, the death of George Harrison, and the rise of The Strokes are just some of the milestones from the world of music that will be remembered from 2001.

Do you recall what you were doing when news of George Harrison's death broke, and do you honestly care that Steps have split up?

How do you predict Steps' solo careers will take off in 2002 and do you think The Strokes will be bigger than Oasis used to be?

With such questions in mind, The Pulse says goodbye to this year by looking at the aspirations, opinions and activities of four local musicians to see how action-packed this year has been, and the plans they have for the New Year.

In October, we ran an article on Pulse, a young threesome from Malvern who choreograph their own dance moves and pen their own tunes.

At the time they were gearing up to play a massive event at Hereford Leisure Centre in aid of a movement called SNAP, which encourages youngsters to party to music without using drugs.

I caught up with one of the group's singers and dancers, Natalie Bourne, and asked her what she had been doing this year.

"We've done gigs mostly at radio roadshows and on various radios stations," she said

"We've also had work in Norwich, played charity events, and have had a lot of interest from record companies."

Natalie said her tip for the top in 2001 was boy band Blue. "I tipped them to be the next big band," she said.

"The one I tip for next year is another boy band, Awesome. They're writing a lot of their own stuff, which is really commercial and catchy."

Natalie said Pulse planned to write more songs in 2002. "We've re-recorded our song, Something Blue, and are going to remix it next year," she said.

"As for George Harrison's death, it was very sad because the Beatles were the first big thing to come out of Britain musically."

Hip-hop funksters Cantaloop, from Bewdley, have had a successful year after appearing on the TV music show The Bass.

The six-piece outfit also released an album called Sensitizie and played Glastonbury Festival.

"This year there has been a lot of change in the band, different musicians have come and gone" said Justin Metti, Cantaloop guitarist and main man.

Our album was an independent release and we had good reviews in the papers."

Cantaloop, who are good friends with Fun Loving Criminals, plan pre-production on their new album in late January, a tour of Switzerland at the end of February, then France and Germany the end of March.

"The nu-metal scene has helped live music in general and I think live music will do well next year," said Justin.

WE were travelling to a gig when we found out about George Harrison's death. For me he was more influential within the Beatles than anyone."

Three-piece indie melodic rock fusion Soapbox Story are hoping to write new songs in 2002 and learn more about production techniques.

The Pulse featured a story on their singer Will Hunt in November, after he had played a series of successful solo gigs.

"For the past five or six months we've been playing as much as we can, getting our name on the Birmingham circuit," said Will, from Bromsgrove.

"It's about getting your name known. The more people read about you the more the name will stick."

Will cited Starsailor as the band who had done well this year.

I LIKE their music and lyrics, and they're melodic like us," said Will, whose cousin is Miles Hunt, lead singer/songwriter with The Wonderstuff.

Will said Soapbox Story had a new CD coming out in March and they were in the process of recording new songs.

They will be supporting Miles Hunt at JB's, Dudley, on Friday, January 11.

Will will be doing solo gigs at Ronnie Scott's, Birmingham, on Friday, January 18 and Friday, January 25.

Jazz funk band Juiced, from Worcester, enjoyed success this year at Birmingham Jazz Festival and have been slogging away recording a CD track at BBC Pebble Mill.

"We're in the middle of getting it mixed and ready for release early next year," said band member Carolyn Evans.

"We're hoping to play The Birmingham Jazz Festival again next year."

Carloyn said the band's "genius" keyboard player will be working in Australia and China for a few months next year so mini discs would be flying back and forth.

The band will be back together in April to play Worcester's Marr's Bar.

"I saw on the internet that George Harrison was dead. It was a huge loss," she said.

Carloyn said many Worcester musicians had done well this year.

"Jamie Knight has had a fantastic year and so have New Blood. It's good to see Worcester bands doing so well.''