Warwick Be Goode: BOTB ’11

The Battle of the Bands (BOTB) competition at Warwick has been running for at least 20 years. It started as a free event with a few bands. For the 2011 event 30 bands are competing in over five heats, a semi-final and a final for the chance to be crowned winners and receive the prestigious BOTB trophy guitar.

Each year’s competition innovates, and excites through the sheer number of new bands that emerge. For many acts, this is their debut gig and so provides a great platform for new music there are always old favourites who return though.

The final last year included blues-rock, pop-punk, funk-rock, indie, alt-rock and doom-sludge, illustrating the incredible diversity which we have on campus. To everyone’s amazement, last year’s winners were Lethe, purveyors in the finest sludge rock.

There are five heats this year, the first of which kicked off just last Tuesday:

In **Heat One**, Hoon Army came away victorious with their mixture of folk, blues and acoustic rock, whilst Rocksoc favourites Apache Death Squad came in second with a brutal set of metal. A special mention must go out to Songs for the Weekend who came fourth despite having formed only the previous weekend.

It’s hard to name favourites for this year due to the large number of new bands emerging within the Warwick scene, but Fly By Night, finalists last year and winners of **Heat Two**, must be among them. Their catchy emo-tinged pop-punk got the whole crowd singing along at this time last year and it will take something very impressive to stop them this year.

**Heat Three**, coming up next Thursday, includes indie-boppers Don’t Feed the Robot and thoughtful prog-rockers Clockwork Heart. The rest of the heat is very tough to predict since the other competitors are BOTB virgins, so come along if you want to hear the freshest of new music at Warwick.

**Heat Four** promises to be one of the best ever witnessed at Warwick BOTB. Every year, there is always a ‘Heat of Death’, but this year things look death-ier than ever. The heat includes last year’s second and third place bands Ackbar and 3=Car respectively, as well as Fourth Wave, who came second in the semi final. The quality alone makes this intimidating, even before you add the hotly tipped Stone Mirage, the mighty Mr Coc and new band Passing Strangers into the mix. This one is far too close to call.

The final heat, **Heat Five** has only one established band – Silencing the Outspoken, who were shockingly dumped out of the competition in the heat stage last year and will be out for revenge; expect fireworks.

The bands are watched by three judges, chosen for their expertise in music and association with Bandsoc. Crash and Top Banana DJ Chris Carter has been judging for many years. Ruth Pearce has been around the rock scene for a while, and Ian Carter is a former Bandsoc Vice-President.
There are new features in BOTB each year and this year the Bandsoc Exec has decided to give a platform to a different charity in each heat. Seven different charities, from ‘Students for Safe Motherhood’ to RAG, will have a stall set up to raise funds and raise awareness.
Competition prizes for 2011 include slots at the Summer Party, Leamington Peace Festival and Last Exit. However, the best prize offered is the chance to lay down some professional cuts; with the chance to record a four track EP at Complete Sound studios with both recording and mixing time included. The overall winner will be presented with the BOTB Trophy Guitar on the night, lost in a former President’s garage for many years, the golden guitar has recently been unearthed and polished up for the occasion!

If you miss anything, each heat will be broadcast on RAW at 10pm the following Monday night; whilst the final will be live on air and recorded by Warwick TV.

If you want to find out more about BOTB 2011 visit [www.bandsoc.co.uk](http://www.bandsoc.co.uk), where you’ll find the judges’ scores and comments, amongst other info. Bandsoc always welcome new members; you can use our practice room, form new bands and ready yourself for BOTB 2012.