July 2009 Archives

For those musicians looking to make it into the mainstream, auditions for Live and Unsigned 2010 start in January.

Live and Unsigned 2010 is a national competition, open to unsigned bands, vocal groups or solo acts.

In the first stage, musicians will have to go through an audition, playing a two minute piece in front of judges. The best ones will be selected by judges to go through to live shows and the regional finals.

The top acts from the regional finals will go on to compete in the national final at a major venue, where the winner will receive a recording contract.

Auditions will take place in: Aldershot (near Guildford), Bedford (near Milton Keynes/Cambridge), Brighton, Bristol, Fareham (near Southampton/Portsmouth), Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Leamington Spa (near Birmingham/Coventry), Liverpool, Basildon, Essex, Hayes and Sheffield.

Dates of the auditions will be released in September.

For more information about the competition visit the website here.

A progressive, electronically charged and largely intrumental set-up may not be what you would expect from a band with such a nice name as A Cup Of Tea.

The band really does offer a new blend that will wet the tastebuds of fans who like electronica synthesisers and vocoder-style voice sampling.

Based in Liverpool and Gloucester, the band's three members are Stu Cook, Gary Salomon and Joshua Davenport, who somehow manage to produce an "organic" sound through "digital music".

In a style not unlike Aphex Twin with a hint of Múm , their guitar melodies are layered with digital drums and a variety of electronics.

Almost paradoxically their name is a celebration of the traditional English beverage and resulted from the copious amounts they consumed while creating their first tunes.

They believe it is best served from a pot, blending two regular tea bags with an earl grey variety. As a great advocate of tea myself I prefer to stick to one variety and not to mix drinks.

Among their notable tunes are the chilled out Imagine This Was All Purple, and Blue Red Box Black not to mention Everything Is Invisible, which is reminiscent of Radiohead at their most experimental.

For those looking for something a little different on Merseyside's music scene and who would like to sample a live show consisting mainly of laptops and synthesisers, the band are playing Korova in Liverpool on Friday, July 17 at 8pm.

To hear their music visit their MySpace here.

Awards are no longer just for those artists who have been signed up to a record label.

Unsigned bands now have the chance to become the 2009 winners of The Peoples Music Awards.

Musicians are allowed to enter one song into the awards and can upload their music through The Peoples Music Awards website.

There are three rounds of voting before a winner will be announced at an awards ceremony next year.

Round 1 is The People's Vote, which is running until August 20, 2009, where members of the public can visit the site and vote for their favourite artists.

In the second round, from August 21 to September 10, music industry professionals will judge the top 10 songs from the first round.

The final round, from September 11 to November 6, will see members of the public casting the final vote on the overall winners.

There will be winners in various categories and they will get to play live at the awards ceremony next year.

It aims to showcase unsigned talent, give bands exposure as well as experience of playing at a music awards ceremony and offer them feedback from music professionals.

For more information visit the website here