JUDGES TALK BACK FROM SHEFFIELD AUDITIONS

Live and Unsigned auditions were in the Sheffield City Hall on 17th January and what an audition it was! Hundreds of bands and singers turned up to perform for the judges and compete for the chance to make it to the live shows! Here the judges tell us all about the day and highlight the best and worst of the auditions…

Chris Grayston, Head of A&R at Future Music thought, “We were inundated with bands at Sheffield and it was great to see so many local acts! There were a lot of Rock and Heavy Metal bands that stood out including Boneyard Babies ">www.myspace.com/boneyardbabiesofficial, Digital Saints ">www.myspace.com/saints3000 , Isolysis ">www.myspace.com/isolysis and PseudoNympho ">www.myspace.com/pseudonymphoband. All Your Peers ">www.myspace.com/allyourpeers had fantastic timing and were a very polished act and I am also looking forward to seeing Bloxed www.myspace.com/bloxed perform their original material at the live heats. Point of the Day to all acts is that all band members need to concentrate more on what they are doing visually and performance too, too many bass players in particular are staring into outer space...they can’t be manikins. I’ll be personally looking at this at the shows that all acts members perform! I felt the one to watch at the live shows from Sheffield auditions was Souldeliq – their image was great!”

Nik Brear, Entertainment Writer for the Sheffield Star said, “I loved the Bright Kicks ">www.myspace.com/brightkicks. They had fantastic chemistry and a tight sound – their lead vocalist really stood out at the auditions. Hark Sparks were off beat at times although their tracks were catchy. Michael’s Mistake ">www.myspace.com/michaelsmistake performed a great original song and I also thought Fresh Faces had their image spot on.”

Guy Harris from Real Radio commented, “Isolysis provided a big powerful sound and great vocals and Alice ">www.myspace.com/cissiepip also impressed vocally – she reminded me of a young Alanis Morissette! There was a real mixture of acts on the day and some opposing sounds. For example Sabrina ">www.myspace.com/429515321 had soft vocals whereas Lois ">www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacecomlois was really energetic. The Talk auditioned well – they are fresh faced, fun and have great energy. Searching for Sylvia was interestingly deceptive – they were five older guys but they had a funky young sound!”

Ben Price from High Peak Radio said, “Isolysis were not my style at all but they were engaging and very polished. Fresh Faces were inventive and refreshing and Lois had fantastic rhythm. I think Superfreak ">www.myspace.com/superfreakuk would be electric on stage at the live shows because they had so much energy.”

Andy Kostek, Vocal Tutor thought, “Cave Toads ">www.myspace.com/thecavetoads have a fresh sound as do Bloxed – they made me smile instantly when they came to audition! Cassini ">www.myspace.com/thecassinidivisionband oozed atmosphere and were very gothic. Beat My Atlantic were interesting although I thought their beat was too basic and they needed to polish their performance. Mr Pasty was a strong band although their song wasn’t. Last Serenade started really well but then their performance didn’t progress! Souldeliq were the stand out band of the day – they are a brilliant musical team, wonderful stuff.”

Of course every act at the live shows start on a level playing field...