Swindon Music

As exclusively announced in Frequency Magazine last month, the website will be running a battle of the bands this year. I am delighted to announce that all but one of the dates have been confirmed for the ‘Swindon Music Championships’.

The first round of the championships will take place with an online vote, allowing you to vote for your favourite local band. Once the voting deadline has been hit, the top twelve bands will progress to the heats, each taking place at Riffs bar throughout June.

On the night, each person through the door will receive a voting slip allowing them to vote for their favourite band of the night. The top two bands from each heat will progress through to the Semi-Finals, where bands will be tested on their versatility.

The semi-finals will take place over two nights, where the bands will have to play both an acoustic set of their own songs and a set including two or more covers. A ballot will be taken on both nights with the combined votes deciding who progresses to the finals.

The top four bands will then progress to the final where each band will have an extended 40 minute set to impress a panel of judges over a number of categories including style, technical ability and showmanship.

There is still plenty of time to enter with the end date of entry Sunday 26 April 2009.



Key Dates:

Entry Deadline: Sunday 26 April
Voting Begins: Friday 1 May
Voting Ends: Friday 22 May

Results/Heats Announced: Monday 25 May


Heat 1: Friday 5 June – Riffs Bar
Heat 2: Friday 12 June – Riffs Bar
Heat 3: Thursday 18 June – Riffs Bar
Heat 4: Thursday 25 June – Riffs Bar

Semi-Finals Leg 1 - Covers: Friday 10 July – 12 Bar
Semi-Finals Leg 2 – TBC

Final – Friday 31 July – The Furnace

how2enter?

am i missing somthing? I can't find the form at the mag?

What if, for example there happens to be a brand new band that are yet to have anyone aware of them. This makes the online vote phase a bit hard.

Are they just out of luck?

Also, are there any prizes? Or just the kudos of being Swindon's "best band"?

The kudos of course. Why else would a band enter?

this is probably the most ridiculous thing ever.

I think it would be really wrong to say the band that wins is the best band in Swindon.
I think they may well be the band with the most friends (otherwise they arent getting through the first 2 rounds) - lets face it, an online vote in such a small community isnt really going to be a reflection of a bands quality, and an on the night vote is great if you can muster up rent a crowd - and in the Semi finals they may well be the band that has written songs that can be played acoustic and have learnt popular covers.
Doesnt in anyway meant that they will have any right to call themselves the best band in Swindon.

What if the bands cannot do acoustic versions of their songs? Would it be fair to ask some of the acoustic acts on the forum to have to do industrial metal versions of their songs?

What if the bands do not do covers? Seems a bit bizarre that covers bands get such a bad rep on the forum and in some venues, and then to prove a band is best they then have to do covers? Surely the positive vote that night would be down to the choice of mainstream covers rather than a good cover of an more obscure song.

What if the band is really good but doesnt come on the forum therefore doesn't know everyone?

"Best band in swindon" should be taken with a pinch of salt. Just a bit of fun isn't it? Loosen up. The whole idea of the online vote is to get the word out and more people interested in the site.

...and bands that aren't on the forum can/will be entering. There will be posters up in venues from next week


Bozley - beats a vanilla battle of the bands surely?

No i dont think it does - markluth sums it up nicely.

if it aint broke..

I suppose I'd better give an "official" response to this post



"Best band in Swindon" should be taken with a pinch of salt. A lot of people would dispute the final decision but the idea of the competition is to give a better indication on a bands range and versatility. The semi-finals may force bands out of their comfort zones a little with covers and acoustic sets.




Fair comment and I'll have to have a think about it.




Covers bands don't get the best reception on the forum, but that isn't to say that SwindonMusic.co.uk hates covers bands or bands should never play covers. Yes, I'm personally not the biggest fan of hearing a group of old men play The Final Countdown in The Swiss Shalet on a Saturday night but that's not what the competition is all about. Bands should be taking a song and running with it. If a band "don't play covers" they will be doing something different and showing a little versatility.

I'd encourage people to vote for the band who have played the most impressive cover and I will personally be looking for a band who has taken a cover and puts their own individual spin but you're right I can't control how people vote. Four bands will be progressing through votes, but there will be a wildcard going through to the final, so if you don't get voted through but do take a cover and do something magic with it there is still every chance of going through to the final.




The competition is open to any band in Swindon and the surrounding areas.



Why not do something different and try and have a little fun? Send an e-mail to championships@swindonmusic.co.uk.

I think you know Mark, that to anyone with a bit of savvy such 'accolades' mean fuck-all anyway. It's just a bit of fun, which will inevitably end in victory for a currently popular Swindon band. A bunch of 17 year-olds who've been honing their craft for 4 years in our of their parents' garages and are now arguably as good as Radiohead are still not going to beat The Kulucci March or Lighterthief. I'm not knocking the competition; just saying it how it is.

Personally, I don't think people should take part in local BOTB competitions unless they know it's just a bit of competitive fun. Saying that, I do think they should be fair.

On the Facebook group it mentions something about 'Wildcards'. How does this work?

Adam, I never meant to sound like i was against the competition, i think it will all be a damn good crack - maybe i was just being grinchy as i know i cant sing for toffee if i was to accompany an acoustic guitar!!!

we have entered , we don't do covers we are just going to do 2 tho .

might just play our own stuff and say we are covering ourselfs hahah

Deluk