Friday night saw the final of the Gloucestershire battle of the bands at Cheltenham's Sound Music Venue. A huge crowd filled the auditorium, which doubles as a snooker club during the day, as the seven bands involved arrived with their respective entourage in tow. Having each progressed from the semi-finals, which were held in Cheltenham, Gloucester & Stroud, to get this far the anticipation in the room was palpable. Most felt like they were in with a chance of succeeding in the competition and playing the main stage at the Sport Beat festival in Gloucester in July with the likes of The Enemy & The Feeling to name but a few, which was the prize for the eventual winner.
I went along to support Cheltenham band The Stressechoes, who had got through to this stage on a sing off in the semi-final. The winner of that was judged by the volume of crowd cheer after their song. Typically downbeat band member Andrew Corey was not expecting to win the competition however.
'I'm not expecting much out of it. It's the chance to get our name known and a chance to promote our gig at Sound Music Venue on 5th July.'
This may well have been the case with the other acts, which included Standing to Fall, Scott James Revolution, Emi Modade, Solid Gone, Erica & Jame Patrick Richards, but once the singing started competition was fierce. The judges Ben Howe, Shane Young and Vince Freeman had a tough job to come up with a winner, but they did just that and James Richard Patrick was their choice.
Andrew's tip for the evening was the band Erica who are managed by ex-Oasis, Duran Duran, The Cure & Spandell tour manager who only gave his name as Robbo. He described them as a "proper band" and that was why he chose to get involved with them.
When asked how he felt his charges would get on in the final he said "I just want them to smash it out of the ball park. Whoever beats us will win it."
He was not to be disappointed by their performance and indeed all of the bands performed to a high level, making the judges job as hard as possible. There was a real eclectic mixture of music on display from rappers to solo artists to full on rock bands and the act that was chosen was a male solo act who will now go on to grace the main stage at the Sports Beat Festival in July. Congratulations and good luck to James Richard Patrick for his upcoming performance.
By Robin Barker
