Almost 150 people turned out on the night; and not once have I seen a more interested and overall inviting crowd at a gig I've organised. From the outset the whole crowd were attentive to the acts on stage, whether they were there for that act or not, and hung around throughout the sets and quite a few until the final result.

Unfortunately the sound wasn't as good as it could have been, which put a little dampener on things, and made some of the bands sound worse than they actually were.

Andy Chapman started things off with a small acoustic set; a small crowd but a solid line in front of the stage, a crisp, raspy voice and a good blend of melodic and intricate acoustic guitar melodies. Andy came third overall, and it was well deserved - he didn't fall fate of the other bands though, who all had niggling sound issues throughout.

Real Horrorshow sounded slightly better in sound check, but from the stage it was all good. Their style was slightly different than expected, and a bit less "rockabilly" than they originally described, but their last song got the crowd bouncing about and certainly got the battle ff to a roaring start.

Start Me Up were bouncy, light hearted and just plain fun. Jumping about on the stage and even breaking in to "Another One Bites the Dust" seamlessly mid-song, they clinched the judges vote and won the overall competition. They were great with the crowd and had a fantastic time on the stage, two qualities which will get them far.

Bullet In Black were the first main act to fall fate of the sound issues, and their 15 minute set just failed to impress; the sound was a bit wishy-washy and overall just sounded a bit too scrappy; obvious influences in Bullet for My Valentine & Funeral For a Friend, but maybe a bit too much influence pushed them back down the rankings a bit and failed to impress the judges.

SIXTI were the group that everybody expected to win; and with a 30-plus strong crowd almost overflowing on the stage with every word they uttered it was apparent why; losing out by just one point, they were unlucky not to clinch it, but hounded by a piercing guitar noise the whole set let them down. Think Bloc Party with a bit more of a reggae influence!

Psynapse burst ear drums by shooting into a Thrash metal set, a bit more brutal than expected but it didn't last throughout the set and in the end they were unlucky not to come higher - their cover of Plug in Baby was mediocre at best and unfortunately they just didn't have the calibre to pull it off overall. Their set was very listenable though and the sound problems didn't seem to affect them at all.

The Supreme Being got the tricky slot of going on last and having been in the same position a few months back knew what to expect; their set was a lot better than their last performance and was easily one of the best on the night, their musical maturity can let them down slightly though at times, and sometimes the songs in all sound very scattered.

Congrats to all 7 bands though who put on great sets considering the conditions; the crowd were fantastic and there is definitely a lot of superb talent to be found in the 7 bands that played.

It was a fix, Judges were bribed in my opinion Sixti should have won. They had the crowd, the participation was brilliant and i know what im talking about!
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The judges were not bribed - there were 5 different judges picked by myself, and many different factors the bands were being judged on. There was only one point in it, and after a lengthy discussion we decided that Start Me Up should indeed have it. SIXTI had sound issues (which were not the sound mans fault) and crowd participation was only one of the judging factors. It was as fair as it could have possibly been, SIXTI were just unlucky! I thought they would get the judges vote, but they just missed out.

Well if Cornall says it was a fix there's really nothing else for me to believe, Sixti clearly owned that night....

agreed sixti were by far the better band. crewdy<--- start me up's manager??? so who were these biased judges?

I don't have any connections to any of the bands, and SIXTI were my choice of winners when the votes were being counted. As said, crowd interaction was not the only thing being judged on (in fact it was the one with least weight) and SIXTI lost points in more than one category for various reasons. We had a lengthy discussion on all of the different voting categories, and Start Me Up came out on top; I'd love to know how that makes the judges biased? None of the judges knew any of the bands, and none of the bands had any idea whatsover who the judges were, like I said SIXTI were just unlucky; they had certain flaws and the judges spotted them.

you say sixti should have won so you agree their judging was incorrect like everyone else there did

No, I said SIXTI were my choice of winners, but it wasn't solely down to me; there were 5 judges and we came to a collective decision. That's the idea of a judging contest and that's just how it turned out - if people think it was a bad decision that's their own issue.

Yo Yo chill out. sixti rock end of. crewdy you cant blame sixti for sound issues that only occured because there was no chance for sixti to sound check their equipment. not the bands fault eh?
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Indeed, I agree. I know I didn't personally deduct any points because of it, but I don't know about the other judges. I think it was a combination of the different bands using them, and I know Bullet in Black had issues with one of the amps. It was part the amp and part the bands really; each band struggled with it accordingly!