This year’s winner of the Derbyshire Times Band of the Year will be given a Fender Standard Stratocaster from main sponsors Musicroom.The competition is well underway, with the first batch of semi-finalists having performed earlier this week.
Six bands fought it out at the Winding Wheel in Chesterfield last night (November 7th), having been selected from dozens of demo entries. They were the Educatables, Ichabod, Funk Forty One, Rookie League, Sons of El’Roacho and What If We Were Superheroes.
Next up is the final six semi-finalists, who will battle it out on November 14th. The newspaper will announce the names of the bands performing next week. The best six bands from both nights will then compete in the grand final on November 21st.
While prestige is an all-important factor to winning the Band of the Year competition, the three finalists will receive extra perks for their efforts as Musicroom has lined up a package of goodies.
Most highly prized, of course, is a Fender Standard Stratocaster, featuring Fender tone, a 70s-style headstock logo and classic styling, which will go to the winning act and help them on their way to becoming a professional band.
The second-placed band will win a studio and practice amp, the Blackstar HT-1 Combo Amplifier, as well as an Amplitube iRig Interface Adaptor, which can sync up to an iPhone or Apple product.
Not leaving the third-placed band empty-handed, they will be given a Boss Micro-BR Digital Recorder to allow them to record their music.
A judging panel will be the ones deciding on which band gets the title of 2011 Band of the Year and Joe Ward from Musicroom’s Nottingham store will be one of the judging line-up.
Derbyshire Times has been running the competition since 1987 to showcase some of the county’s best musical talent and provide a platform for them to perform.