Viper Music

ViperMusic signs University of the West of England’s Battle of the Bands Winner!

- News article posted on Friday 19 Mar 2010 at 12:26 by

A great night was had by many students, parents of the performing bands, friends and supporters last night at Thekla in Bristol. It was all in aid of UWE's Live Music Society's finalists of Battle of the Bands competition. The competition had begun with 16 bands a couple of months ago and each week one was eliminated until there were only four left in the final to battle it out for the winning spot.

It kicked-off at 8pm with Ash Cook (UWE's President of the Live Music Society) introducing the evening and the four bands who had been battling it out over the previous weeks. The judging panel for the competition included myself on behalf of ViperMusic, Dan Benmore last year's Live Music President and in his final year at UWE studying Robotics and Ian Bostic a music techie currently working for Roland as a consultant.

The evening was held at one of Bristol's best venues, Thekla. With the crowd on the dance floor ready to watch the bands battle it out and the judges up the top on the balcony looking over the stage at the bands, the first band was ready to go with their twenty minutes! The band to start the battle was Cortez & the Killers who are an eclectic, alternative, folk band with a variety of instruments played through their set. The band were good but the judges unanimously agreed that they need to work on their harmonies (this had previously been mentioned at their last heat as well). It's always a bit nerve-racking going on at the beginning so they did well.

The second band was Ollie Collard who had a strong fan-base there. The first half of the set was a bit shaky but during the second half confidence increased and finished really well! His band included himself playing Guitar and vocals and a drummer. It just seemed to be missing one more person playing bass to give it a bit 'more' with some of the songs. The third band was a total contrast to what we had heard so far in every way. Fire for Liars were energetic and the band included five members who worked the crowd and added flare. There were a couple of things which were mentioned by the panel to the guitarists as they overlapped a bit making the sound a bit 'muddy' and the repetition at the end of one of their songs was sometimes too much.

Then the fourth and final band, Maps and Legends. They were fantastic and the panel couldn't make any criticism  for them and the sound was great. They all clicked as a band interacting and gaining the crowd's attention dancing and singing along with them. They mentioned that they had got together in September last year and are in the process of producing their debut album with the release of their new single soon.

The audience voted on their cards and popped it in to the box of the band who they wanted to win. The votes were counted, and Ash Cook took centre stage to announce the winner of the Battle of the Bands competition 2010........

Fourth place went to Cortez and the Killers

3rd Place went to Ollie Collard

2nd place went to......Fire for Liars, which meant,

1st place went to Maps and Legends!!

The crowd going wild with applause and shouts, they were presented with a cheque for £250 raised by the Live Music Society, goodie bags full of Jack Daniels merchandise and last but not least, a six-month Management Contract with ViperMusic. 2010 is getting more exciting for ViperMusic!!

Well done to all of the bands who participated in the competition, you all did really really well especially as it was some of the bands' first live music competition with their band!

All of us from ViperMusic wish them all the very best and we're looking forward to working with Maps and Legends over the coming months!

- Posted on Friday 19 Mar 2010 at 12:26 by