Thursday 18th June 2009

It’s all about the competitions this week. Everyone’s entering them. Even I’m in a competition to get rid of this man flu that’s managed to take control of my whole body for more than a week now.

It seems every summer there is an array of different competitions for bands to enter to gain a place at various music festivals. It’s a smart way for the festival organisers to drum up interest for their festival around the country but it’s even smarter for the bands who win the places – just ask our very own JKLMNO who won a place at the Benicassim Festival last year.

They’re back from their tour of Barcelona and now the band with the most ‘ridiculously beautiful harmonies’ in North Wales are currently campaigning to get themselves onto the Greenman Festival line-up this year.

Heal the Last Stand hope to win a slot at the festival in the Brecon Beacons at the end of August via the ‘Green Poll’, which is a vote based competition which bands can enter via the Greenman Festival website for a chance to open the festival’s main stage on the opening day.

The top 6 most voted bands via the Green Poll website will then go through to a live ‘Battle of the Bands’ final in the Camden Monarch in London on the 23rd July where a panel of music industry suits will pick the winner. Voting for the 1st round closes at midnight on June 28th, so point your browser to http://bit.ly/19hngu and vote for them.

You can cast a vote every 24 hours, so be sure to return and vote every day. Other bands playing the August festival include; Wilco, Jarvis Cocker, Noah and the Whale and Camera Obscura. Mold based Mechanical Owl are also in the running for the competition, I’d vote for Heal today and Mechanical Owl tomorrow and then repeat.

In other Heal the Last Stand news, they are currently working with Steve Nicholls (of Camera) on 13 songs which will become their debut album with a working title of ‘What Love is…’ They have announced a special headline show at Wrexham’s Bellevue Park bandstand on Friday 3rd July starting at 7pm.

Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle are just one gig away from joining the likes of Oasis and Kings of Leon at this year’s FIB Heineken Festival in Benicassim, Spain in July.

The band have been chosen as one of the last five finalists from thousands of bands who applied and the final five bands have been invited to play in front of a live audience and judging panel made up of the usual music industry suits at the Pigalle Club in London on June 23rd.

Let’s try and keep the glory in our area, if you want to support the band at the Pigalle Club, free tickets are available from info@newdirectionmusic.com. Good luck!

The Absurd are back at the Y Pentan Bar in Mold following their successful Patrick Jones event at Central Station. Tonight they have hip-hop/folk/electro duo Convoi Exceptionnel who are travelling from Aberystwyth, poetry from Gwyn Parry who is also the vocalist and harmonica player for reggae band Redstripe and also the musical equivalent of the smell of a freshly baked loaf, Rachel Lloyd and Matt Nicholls. It starts at 8pm and admission is a voluntary contribution.

Tomorrow night Telfords Warehouse play host to ‘The Ray Summers’ who are a psychedelic pop band from Falkirk (which is located in the middle bit of Scotland between Edinburgh and Glasgow). Far away in other words. Looking at their press shots they look no different to thousands of other indie wannabe hair/drain pipe/leather jacket bands but as soon as you delve into their music you’re assured otherwise. Think soul, ska and reggae accidentally mixed in with a dollop of pure 60’s sunshine pop.

They only formed in 2008 and have already supported Idlewild, The Automatic and Paolo Nutini, picked personally to play at Alan McGee’s Death Disco night in London as well as having their own sell out headline show at the influential King Tuts venue in Glasgow. Tomorrow night entry is £4 after 9pm and free before.

Stokoz to Moscow sadly did not get through to the final of the Road to V competition. The judges, The Charlatans and Just Jack obviously didn’t have a clue when they picked their final 6 bands but it goes to show how much support Stokoz have as they finished higher in the chart than any of the final bands picked.

Check back next week for some more frolics into the music scene in our area. Email me at ben@wrexhammusic.co.uk with your news. Take care.