Report: Rosa Weiner

Sound Affects Battle of the Bands returned for the second year in a row on Saturday at the infamous Rose Theatre at Edge Hill University with fresh new talent from solos, duos and bands aged 7-17.

And with two age categories and four music industry professional judges, the acts battled it out for the top prize of a full day recording in Sound Affects professional recording studio, home to NW record label ‘At Large Records’.

With individual prizes up for grabs too, each performer gave it their best shot, but only 4 acts made it through to the final round based upon an audience vote.

In the younger age category (7-12), 5 piece Mythical Rhythm and solo power singer Amelia Kate made it through to the final and were given their second chance to win over the judges to be crowned the winner. Older age category competitors Erin Leah and Painted Head were the two successful artists taking a shot at the top prize.

Crowd favourite Mythical Rhythm had first performed the Cranberries classic ‘Zombie’ to win over the audience vote and stepped it up with their own original song for the final battle. Meanwhile, solo singer Amelia Kate went for Katy Perry’s powerful ‘Roar’ for her first song and pulled on the judges heartstrings for her second song- a rendition of Alexandra Burke’s ‘Hallelujah’.

Although both performances were outstanding, it was Mythical Rhythm who took home the winning title for the younger age category!

Musical theatre star Erin Leah went for Queen favourite ‘Somebody to Love’ for her first choice and decided to showcase her pop star diva for second song recent release ‘What about us’ by P!nk. Radiohead/Interpol/Jeff Buckley rockers Painted Head went in at the deep end and went for two original songs for both performances, receiving comments from the judges such as ‘I would pay to watch a whole set of your music’. Again it was an exceptionally close call, but Painted Head swept up the top prize for the older age category.

An already jam packed night saw Sound Affects Studios supporting their new chosen charity ‘The Children’s Air Ambulance service’ by auctioning off some donated prizes from Orange Amplification and Roland; these included an Orange Bass guitar and Roland Keyboard - they have now raised a whopping £2000 for the charity!

Overall, it was another cracking night with an exceptional standard of musicianship across the board, right from the youngest performers aged 7 to the teenage divas and rockers.

Here’s to next years!