BEDFORD METAL BATTLE OF THE BANDS 07

 

The Bedford Athletic Rugby Club (The Ath.) Bedford. Friday 23rd November 2007.

The Escape, Rouge Poet, Fit To Be Tied, Showing Tonight, Polite Underground.

New Bands Final. Winners - 1st Fit To Be Tied 2nd Showing Tonight.

New Bands Final

The New Bands Final which was a great idea originally conceived by Nigel Evans who first pioneered the live gigs at The Ath and was devised as a path for younger newer talent to steer towards, to give them a chance when up against more experienced bands.
This heat featured 5 bands newly established on the scene, opening with THE ESCAPE (New Band Winners from Heat 1) No Escape T-shirts this time, but plenty of movement from only 3 band members producing old head on young shoulders rock music - of the classic variety, they are young lads oozing raw talent; the vocals were loosing their way in finding the tune in early parts but renditioned a fully competent cover by The Who. - Look out for more from these guys on our Stars In Their Eyes cover night 21st December.

ROUGE POET (New Band Winners from Heat 2) Its easy to say your band has a varied sound in order to be able to get on a more varied choice of line-up's but with this band they are dead right. Having lost a couple of players (that was careless) since last time, they at least hadn't lost their variety of styles, jumping from standard indie to really heavy. Some of their tunes I thought sounded standard fare and samey, while others were well played intelligent numbers. I can't say I'm in to their style personally but you can see that a lot of time and effort has gone in to the sound, not including some of their La la la la lyrics.

Their first gig was proudly with us their second was a city gig in Milton Keynes (Snow Dome) and their third only gig was here, back with Bedford Metal FIT TO BE TIED (New Band Winners from Heat 5). They have a refreshingly constant change of vocals shared between two band members one from the disbanded Black Reverence doing the obligatory growling and producing a great sound with seemingly little effort and the other, thrown from Slave To Nature with proper rock metal vocals to give contrast. Sometimes the growling spoils the main singing, while other times it compliments it, making the need to get the right balance. The band Opeth do a good balance of vocal styles and these are nearly as good! This band were certainly the best guitarists of the night and their rhythm section well hammered out by their long shanked rascal with a mighty red toped mop of hair, on drums. We had the amazing Dio cover again in with their own amazingly good material. Its great to see that Fit To Be Tied appear to be really enjoying their time on stage while producing a sound falling in to a category of 2 words that define a good band to me - 'Heavy and Melodic!

The Only band on the line-up to have played both their sets at The Ath. SHOWING TONIGHT (New Band Winners from Heat 6) were a well polished and practiced act, they had planned a laser light show to go with their gig which in the end didn't transpire, believe me, this band doesn't need fancy lights to hold the attention when you have a band with the expendable energy that this band clearly have. Right from the off, they leap straight on with a well rehearsed well oiled persuasive flow of professionalism. Its like an Enter Shikari in its progenital stage, waiting to get bigger and better to a point where I can put the stage on E-bay for a mint coz Showing Tonight have played on it. I'm not usually in to screamo but when it's done this good and with keyboards adding to the talent on show, then there's no stopping them. Look out for Showing Tonight opening our Bedford Metal Night on 28th December at The Ath. They really know how to put on a show.

Having opened for their first heat at The Civic POLITE UNDERGROUND (New Band Winners from Heat 3) had a chance to headline to a large well up for it audience. They are a Bedford band and have a following of fans to see them. They even come to these gigs to watch the bands on other heats which is pleasing to see their support. They certainly had a constantly good crowd all the way through.
With a main age range of 15-18 for this particular heat, this band were the youngest, weighing in at 14 and already making their mark. Their bassist looking like an emo cowboy and their singer with trademark long coat but couldn't retain it all the way through. They are a four man band and each provide some vocals to their indie dominated sound.

Prizes for this New Bands Final included 100 music centre vouchers for second prize and a day in the recording studio, a photo shoot, a place on the River Festival gig and Sid Worth fest gig next year for first prize - (and I'm sure I can throw a few more varied gigs at various venues their way also). All runners up received Bedford Metal T-shirts and a pack of badges with their band name on, so didn't go home empty handed.

The Escape

Rouge Poet

Fit To Be Tied

Showing Tonight

Polite Underground


For more photos of this gig see 'Gig photos' button at top.

Keith www.bedfordmetal.co.uk