The second round of battle of the bands was a huge success, with the band Bruises taking the win, but the night ended with a great twist!
Up first performing at the Battle of the Bands was ' Bruises' who completely charmed the packed-out Cricketers with their energetic thumping tracks and a few inflatable bananas flying around the crowd. It was incredible fun. Bruises had a huge tribe of fans that they brought along to the event and definitely gained some new ones.
The next band to take the spotlight was The Doll Drums, they have such a unique and distinctive sound, and, you could easily float away in serenity whilst listening to them. We look forward to seeing more of The Doll Drums as they are a newly formed band and have great potential. They did an incredible job and gained a lot of new fans on the night.
The final band of the evening, Adam Blunden Band, did throw a dilemma into the mix for the two judges present, Stuart Mack and the stand-in judge, a very special guest, DD Swift who stood in for a poorly Jorge Vasques.
Adam's funky chilled sound was so lively, very easy, and lovely to the ear. For a newly formed band, they sounded very tight musically and sounded like they had been doing this for many years. They performed brilliantly and gained a lot of new listeners and supports from the event.
So, after three very strong band performances, it was time for the judges to go outside and discuss who they think should be the winner of round 2, whilst the votes of the audience were being collected and counted.
It came down to a split decision with the judge's votes, one went for 'Bruises ' and the other for 'Adam Blunden Band'. With lots of praise expressed for The Doll Drums.
The audience's votes were narrowly won by Bruises. But organizer Suzanne and the judges agreed that this was the perfect time to pull out one of her two wild cards, this simply means that she has two extra spaces to fill in the semi-final slots, as well as one winner from each 4 rounds. 6 bands are required to create two semi-finals consisting of 3 bands each.
Bruises were announced as the Battle of the Bands round 2 winners, bagging themselves a gallon of beer as their prize on the night. The atmosphere was so intense as Suzanne announced that Adam Blunden Band had rightly earned a place in the semi-final also, which in turn created massive praise and congratulations from the audience.
The night overall was truly great with so much support and such a big audience. Jodie Erica was there to show her own support and confirmed "It was so awesome to experience such a cool event on our local doorsteps. All three bands were brilliant, the atmosphere and the event in total was a fun success. It's amazing to have people like Suzanne Fletcher in our community helping the local music scene expand and giving local artists/bands a platform to perform, and, gain exposure as well as experience and opportunity. I look forward to the next one".
The next Battle of the Bands round 3 will be held on the 25th of February as The Drop Downs, Ali in The Jungle and Falaena go to battle. Free entry at The Cricketers, don't miss it!
Both images were taken on the night by Mark Mitro from ingeniousphotogenies.
