Camden crawls to a halt – Feedback from Live and Unsigned Camden Auditions!

Camden crawls to a halt as the Live and Unsigned music competition Live and Unsigned, took place on Saturday 18th February at Dingwalls in Camden! Over 800 unsigned musicians made Camden crawl to a holt, performing in front of the judging panel of music industry specialists, making it the busiet audition of the Live and Unsigned 2012 to date.

Judging the unsigned musicians for the music competition at the Dingwalls, Camden were Pip Ellwood from Entertainment Focus, DeQuincy Prescott from London Summer Jam, Eric Stams from Tech Music School, Denise Kodia journalist for Flavour Magazine and Head of Future Music Chris Grayston.

Well done to all those who auditioned for the music competition in Camden especially the few who made it through to the Live Regional Final shows on Sunday 1^st April at Dingwalls, Camden.

Find below feedback from the audition day, sorry with so many auditioning it’s impossible to give every act feedback, so find feedback for a selected few who stood out for both the right and sometimes wrong reasons.

Please be aware views expressed by judges are opinions and subjective to that particular judging panel. These views in no way reflect the views of Live and Unsigned, but are published with a view to being beneficial to the performing bands and singers who auditioned. We ask you to please take the feedback onboard with a view to helping acts improve.

Camden crawls to a hold – Audition Feedback!

Joy to Filth Ratio– What a wonderful start to the day, very impressive at 9am start, music heaven. Any thoughts to vocals?

City on Fire– Nice track good vocal support from lead guitarist with a decent melody.

Holly Drake – Decent track with a good build to the song.

Karis Chopping– Lovely voice remember to get right up to that microphone for maximum velocity.

Five weeks in – Lead vocalist has got a good distinct voice. The song is catchy, good solid band.

Astro Sphinx – Needed more dynamics and more vocal support from the band, very little performance. Got better as it went on and they warmed into it.

Afrix – Technically good with interesting lyrics and guitar playing was strong could have giving it a little more passion.

Mel Dayna– Loving the London accent made it unique and distinctive. Engagement was weak.

Pete Clough – Be careful of mic control often drifting away from the mic when performing.

Bastedo– Vocally very strong, had a real full sound.

Amy & Pira – Well done girls but you need to perform as well, eye contact and body posture worth practicing in front of a mirror or film footage and learn to perform.

Rachel Brooks- Well constructed song sweetly sung.

Camden crawl – Further feedback

Anna Serrano– One of the bands of the day with a full sound loving the sound from the synth, just be careful not to overcrowd the arrangement when all in full flight let it breathe a little.

Carlito – Cracking drummer, lead vocals strained at times but was early I guess.

Nicolotte Corcoran– Interesting playing style, good energy and soulful vocals.

Timmy Booth– Guitar and backing track clash.

Bullet Tooth– Funky vibe and a decent song with lots of potential.

Dolled up– Looked fab, image was in synch and they lined up in the correct order with all elements considered. The song is catchy but as with a lot of vocal groups need to tighten up the vocals as will be judged 100% on those so need to be on point with that at times early in the performance it suffered with tuning but overall real potential to go far in the competition just need to practice and work hard.

Candis Allen – Nice vocal, good eye contact and a strong song. Think image.

Omar Afuni– Lovely voice and a catchy song just add some more dynamic to make it even better.

Deco Pilot– Great to see the synth playing such a strong part on a well-constructed song.

House Party Massacre– Needs to be a lot tighter chaps, timing was poor today.

Nia Fisher– Very intense showed the passion for the music. Very Annie Lennox like.

Bobby Evans– Fantastic lyrics and song.

Music competition grinds Camden to a crawl – Further feedback

Demo– Performed it well with a good vibe to the song.

Ashton Forde– Nerves just got the better of Ashton, more performance will improve this but by the end really got into the swing of it.

Stewart Barker– Vocals were strained need to relax more and let flow.

Kruk– Great riff hooks, very catchy.

Alex King– Need to really work the image dress like a pop star at the moment lacks being authentic.

Ed Le Coyte– Take care on the low notes lacks clarity.

Ak Rekz– Performed well and song had a good vibe.

Amy Milner– Need to ensure microphone is close to your mouth and avoid shouting as spoilt an obviously heartfelt song demonstrating some real potential.

William Plum– Guitar tuning let this performance down.

Mimina– Quality lyrics and distinct vocals, a deadly combination.

Antique– Such a soulful voice. Good edgy song.

Bisda– Started way too low and thus sounded flat.

No Thought No Gravity– Fine front lead, charismatic and lively the rest of the band need to grab some of this to improve very dull from the rest of the band.

Callum Rafferty– Callum is a very promising talent has great ideas and progression but not at the expense of sounding messy so make sure what’s played into the loop pedal is spot on. Perhaps more simplicity would take away pressure and allow more room to focus on performance.

Joshua Dixon– Just a natural, take care on the high notes struggled to get them on point.

Matt Hodges– Lovely raspy voice with a distinctive natural look, one aspect missing an original song or be more creative with the cover.

The Emma Skipp Band– Lovely tight sound, really tight well-rehearsed band, threw themselves into the performance from the start and stood out, brilliant stuff!

Lucy-May O’Reilly– Love the image, bit of a 60’s vibe watch don’t over strain the head voice so work on vocal technique for the shows. Visually need more on stage so perhaps a couple of backing singers or someone playing live start thinking bigger and better.

Soulburn– Definitelyt one of the tightest bands of the day, slick.

Sychlo– Engaging, catchy, fun and vibrant... yes we liked them!

Resando– Great sound and great front man who performed superbly, however is the music and image in synch. Leather jackets? Time to maybe look at this and get an edge to the image to back up the music as it’s a catchy song and love the music.

The Chase– Comfortable playing together and easy on the ear.

Amber– Silky voice.

Angel McKenzie– Way too complicated thus why had a couple of false starts and ends up sounding a mess sorry! Just get a good song and play along with just the keys and with passion will be a massive move forward musically.

The Fourfits– Unusual to have four sisters in a group, vocally all very high could work out some more diverse harmonies. Potential is there to see but probably not their best performance.

Ulterior Motives– Was a little clumsy in timing difficult to see who was setting the pace but song has potential.

The Dave Martin Movement– Retro and modern vibe at the same time sounded great.

Tin Can 44’s– Good image and well played but felt like the song could have better dynamics and structure.

2 Tone Red– Love the girls and song they worked brilliantly but maybe the songwriter is best to take a back seat now in terms of a line up as looks a little imbalanced.

Music Competition Camden

Acts that make it through to the Live Showcases will be in with the opportunity to win a multitude of prizes. The winners of both the Blackstar Exposure Award, the award for the act with the largest quantity of submitted publicity material in relation to the competition, and the Extreme Exposure Award, the award for the act who performs the most high publicity stunt, will win a free day in a local recording studio worth up to £250, or if the winning act is a band, they’ll win a brand new Blackstar amp. The Live and Unsigned studio partner for Camden is Arcadium Studios. Runners up for the Blackstar Exposure Award will receive free music lessons worth up to £125, courtesy of Tech Music School.

In addition, acts that make it through to the Live Showcases will be given a chance to win festival slots, with festival organisers selecting acts to perform at their 2012 festival at each stage of the competition. Camden acts will also be within a chance of being selected to perform a slots at over 13 festivals on the Live and Unsigned festival tour and particular to Camden the Regional Festival Partner London Summer Jam.

If you’d like to come along to see some of the bands and acts that made it through to the Camden Regional Showcase Finals on Sunday 1^st April 8^th March at Dingwalls, Camden, click here to go to the Live and Unsigned website to purchase tickets or if you want to get involved for next year then click here to enter.