Can't reach a character in a string

[Anonymous]

I've used another method:

<?php
$bands= ("tindersticks-scott walker-plaid-pluxus-the residents");
$bandsArray= explode("-", $bands); 
for ($i= 0; $i < sizeof($bandsArray); $i++){ 
   echo substr( $bandsArray[$i] , 0 , 1 )."<br>";
   } 
?>

But I know there are those Perl based functions preg_replace that work perfect although I don't know them...