We met a solo female artist using backing tracks at a charity concert, she said she had never sung with a band so we invited her along to one of our rehearsals. She is now our lead singer, but still does some solo gigs. In fact our only gig for next year so far was gained via her agent.
We have been doing open mike nights in local social clubs to get used to playing together live and have gone down very well but looking at the acts being booked at these places they are tribute bands or tribute solo singers (typically Elvis or Rod Stewart).