The best live music in Bedford is being discovered by the Live and Unsigned music competition. The UK’s biggest music competition for original artists works to uncover the best unique, unsigned talent in the region, such as Live and Unsigned Grand Finalists Haunted Tranquility, who have created a blog about their competition experiences for the chance to win a great prize.

Bedford Music Blog

Live and Unsigned finalists Haunted Tranquility submitted their blog after all music competitions Finalists were asked to write about their progression through Live and Unsigned to be in with a chance of winning a prize of £500 worth of recording studio time. The best blogs from the acts involved in this year’s Live and Unsigned music contests are going online for a chance to win. The best blog will be decided by which act receives the most ‘likes’ for their blog on the Live and Unsigned Facebook wall.

We’ve had a great response from bands and acts wanting to share their experiences of the Live and Unsigned music competition, and now they will be shared with you, giving acts the chance to win time in a recording studio.

Live Music Competition

Throughout the weeks we’re going to put up music contest acts’ blog entries for you to join in the fun and read. If you like their blog, vote for them on our Facebook page by pressing the ’Like’ button or commenting positively on their work. The act from the music contest with the most support for their blog within one week of it being posted will be the winner of the recording studio time prize.

The best of luck to all bands and acts who have shared their stories of the Live and Unsigned music contest, get voting for your favourite.

Live Music Blog 15: Haunted Tranquility

Bedford Unsigned band

Hey mandems, we are Haunted Tranquillity, and this is our Live and Unsigned experience . . . We hope you enjoy.

The band was formed in September 2010 with 5 members; we have been through a couple of changes since then, to where we are now. Since we started as a band, we have noticed that due to our individual experiences, as a group we have matured at a rapid rate.

Bedford Live Music Auditions

Haunted Tranquillity arrived at the Bedford Corn Exchange on Sunday 13^th February; we planned to play a shortened version of a song we had written, having played the original at a gig the night before. However Zoop reverted back to the full length ooooops, a full recovery was made but we thought we were out of the competition.

Our Mum’s could hear our audition from the holding area, as our music is not mainstream they told us the reaction from the waiting artists was one of surprise LOL.

The first round was a very tense event for us; however, we managed to pull together and a very long 15 minutes later we were told we had won a place in the regional final, our journey had begun.

Bedford Live Music Regional Finals

We arrived with 25 supporters back at the Bedford Corn Exchange on April 2^nd 2011,   Soooo excited as Alex Baker from Karrang radio was judging today (how awesome is that).

The Bedford Corn exchange is the biggest venue we have played to date and it feels amazing to be able to perform on such a big stage but the icing on the cake had to be the way that such a new and diverse audience accepted us; it felt as if everything had gelled together! It was amazing.

It was decided to choose a diverse cover for the regional final; we didn’t want to go for the expected and hoped it would get us noticed, so picked the titanic theme by Celine Dion!!! No one expected that.

We all thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience; we met some really talented artists backstage and made some great friends, including Powersurge who had our wildcard vote in the area final.

The judges put us through to the semi finals with an encouraging review and we didn’t have to rely on the public vote! It was a great feeling to hear our name called out and joining the other finalists on stage. The cheers from Team HT raised the roof, we couldn’t see them but we sure as hell heard them . . .  we are so grateful to you all.

Bedford Live Music Exposure

As an unexpected bonus during one of our jamming sessions in Ben the Dapster’s garage, we discovered we had won the exposure award ...It was great to see it in writing on Live and Unsigned ‘s Facebook page it was Dan who had the biggest smile.

“Well done to Haunted Tranquillity for winning the Regional exposure award for the most publicity for the Bedford Regional finals! You guys win a free BlackstarHT-5 half-stack amplifier with head and cab, enjoy!”                                                                                                                                                                               

Bedford Live Music Performance Advice

Alex Baker thought we could benefit from a second guitarist. We would work even harder to find a replacement; it wasn’t an option not to do everything we could to secure a place at the O2.

We put on our Facebook page that we were looking for a rhythm guitarist and had a lot of interest, but it was important to us that whoever we chose fitted in with us as a band, not just a good guitarist we needed someone a little bit crazy too. It was going to be hard to find anyone to fit in as we are so tight together, brothers from different mothers.

Bedford Unsigned Band Exposure Prize

                                             Whoop Whoop – Big cheesy grin!!!!

Bedford Live Music Performance

Work started for May 7at the Corn Exchange Bedford which included all Midland and Bedford regional finalists and this time only three acts were going to make it, two with the highest judges marks and one with the audience vote. Another song to write and include a cover, shall we go for the same genre? Noooo Michael Jackson Thriller as you have never heard it before!!!

Arriving in Bedford for the Area finals everyone was on a high the atmosphere backstage was electric. The entourage that follows us everywhere had all donned their orange Haunted Tranquillity Tee shirts and looked like a tangerine tsunami invading the streets.

 We heard ourselves being introduced and headed out onto the stage – WOW we had bought some loud people with us, when they eventually quietened down, Adam Painter asked us a few questions, one being, “Do you have to have silly hair to be in the band” – as quick as a flash Zoop responded with “yes you’ll fit in nicely then” (as he has awesome curly hair), “we’re looking for a triangle player” Adam admitted he wanted to play tambourine… “multi task” quipped Zoop. You’ve got to love that boy!!!                 

Well now was our chance, we had 3 minutes to show the judges exactly what we were about . . . It couldn’t end now. The new song and cover for this round had been rehearsed to the MAX, we had decided to go for Michael Jackson’s thriller to see if we could WOW the judges even more, and it seems a bit easy when you stick to the same genre. We all played our socks off and left the stage to the endless shouts of encouragement from ‘the Orange Tees’.

The compere addressed the audience after with “imagine if you had bought your nan with you and she heard that”. . Well Nanny VI was there and was quick to let everyone know she was, and was an extremely proud nan!!!

Bedford Unsigned Band Success

 It seemed like an eternity before we heard the results, 1^st and 2^nd guaranteed places by the judge’s vote had been taken . . . and not by us . . . Only one chance left the audience vote. Would these people give the’ loudest funkiest screamo band’ their vote?  We were about to find out. The acts in 3^rd 4^th place were called back on stage. . There was only one last chance . . . Haunted Tranquillity. .  the cheers went up in the hall as we went back on stage so so grateful to be given another chance but also fully aware this was our LAST chance to see the O2 from the stage. . . And the act with the highest audience vote, we heard afterwards these tense few moments were really hard for our mums knowing we could be sent home.   HAUNTED TRANQUILLITY!, Well we all jumped about 3 feet in the air, relieved in the knowledge we were through and that the audience had voted for us. . How awesome is that. The tsunami also erupted at about the same time.                                     

Ben and ZOOP’S Mums both in tears, hugged in an embrace that said the endless treks to gigs and rehearsals with amps and a drum kit was all worth it, now everyone else knew what they had always known. These boys are fantastic!!!

Outside the Corn Exchange everyone was still in high spirits and Team HT were determined to let everyone know we had got through, a 10 metre banner appeared and two huge O2 letters.

An awesome little dude called JAG asked for our autograph, we all signed a poster and gave it to him, and we were made up. He was the son of another act and this just shows the genuinely nice people that we have met along the way.                                    

 Unfortunately it didn’t work out with the guy who joined us for the area finals and during a conversation he decided to leave the band. We are being joined at the O2 by a phenomenal guitarist who fits in nicely, he has the same image and interests and is a lot crazy (he will love us for saying that) but not only that, has supported us throughout our time together at gigs and on our Live and Unsigned journey.

Live Music from Bedford to The O2

Practice is something we all take very seriously, but once the hard work has been done writing new songs, adding the covers or preparing for gigs we have booked, it has become a time for us to enjoy each other’s company and we have even been known to have a little fun!!!! We wanted to share some of these with you all as we thought it would be good for you to know the real us as well as the performing Haunted Tranquillity.

We have some great memories during our Live and Unsigned journey, and one of the best for us was after a 4 hour rehearsal, Karon had invited us and all our close friends and family to a barbeque at her house to celebrate getting to the grand final before we had a gig in town. It was an awesome day with lots of pranks and general misbehaving. Hope you enjoy the photo

Live Music Exposure

It has been quite difficult for us to get any local media coverage / airtime because of the type of music we love, which can be a little disheartening, but we were lucky enough to go to Download festival this year and managed a 45 minute chat with Black Veil Brides... these dudes are truly awesome and had lots of advice to give us and were really interested in the Live and Unsigned competition ... BVB we salute you. Meeting our idols has made us even more focused on our music and we are more determined to give it our all, this is what we want more than anything. Bring on the O2.

So thanks for reading this to the end and not falling asleep, and if you’re in London at the O2 on July 23^rd and you see what looks like an orange tsunami - follow them and find out what the loudest funkiest screamo band around sounds like, we are going for the biggest WOW this time with our cover song choice. Come see us at the rock final and have a listen. . . Oh and if you have enjoyed reading about our big adventure please ‘like’ it . . .  Peace

Finally a big thank you to all at Live and Unsigned for giving us this opportunity and all the support along the way, and a bigshout out to Jackie and Karon for all your hard work and for always being there for all of us, much love  xxx

Haunted Tranquillity

Martin    Ben    Zoop   Max    Dan
Haunted Tranquillity!

If you like Haunted Tranquility's blog, you have a week to vote for them on our Facebook page  by pressing the ‘Like’ button! Watch out throughout the week ahead for more blog entries from bands and acts sharing their experiences from Live and Unsigned 2011.

Don’t miss your chance to win great prizes!