THIRSTY Merc is celebrating 15 years as a band, and the group is on the final leg of its Take Me Back anniversary tour.

Musicians Matthew Baker, Karl Robertson, and Phil Stack played together in various bands in Dubbo, and in 1996, the band Drown was formed with Baker on guitar, Robertson on drums, Peter Jamieson on vocals and Stack on bass guitar.

It was in 2002 that Baker and Stack returned to Dubbo where Rai Thistlethwayte, from Sydney, as lead singer (later also on guitar and keyboards) and Stack worked as a live jazz duo and session musicians.

They were joined by Baker and Robertson, and formed a pop rock band, initially called Thirsty.

Soon after, they moved to Sydney and were renamed Thirsty Merc. The band's name came from Thistlethwayte's old Mercedes Benz, which was a gas-guzzler.

Four albums and 15 years later, Thistlethwayte reminisces about the past and the focus on the future of the band.

"It's a different tour from everything we've done before, because it's our 15-year anniversary,” he said.

"It's a special reason for this tour. We've got four albums, so we will be playing some music that we haven't actually played before from our old albums, to give the audience a music experience that shows our entire 15-year career.

"We will also be playing the hits, the well-known songs.”

Thistlethwayte said preparing for the tour has been a great occasion to look back on their careers.

"There has been a huge amount of reminiscing, a lot of nostalgia,” he said.

"It's been a huge up and down, challenging but very rewarding and amazing experience doing this band for so long.

"When you look at old photos and videos, it brings all of that back, plus talking about the old artwork and about stuff that happened 10 years ago.

"It puts everything into perspective. This also gives us a lot of encouragement to continue into the future.”

Thirsty Merc plays the Villa Noosa on May 12.