Orkney Bands

By Clarissa Linnet. Around 500 people turned up to watch the first heat of the much-anticipated Battle of the Bands, which is to take place in Orkney every two years. Since the last Battle of the Bands in May 2004, various young bands have pushed their way into the spotlight, building up their own fan bases with their creativity.

Twelve of those have entered this year’s Battle of the Bands, hoping to take away the big prize of £500 as well as a headline gig at Fusion. The judges this time around are Grooves owner Neil Stevenson, local musician Brian Cromarty and Jacky Smith from The Orcadian. The night was sponsored by The Orcadian and presented by Dave Gray from Radio Orkney.

Kicking off the night was E-Merjj, a brand new band consisting of five 12 year olds from Papdale who have just recently started at Kirkwall Grammar School. They had plenty of support for the night, and they managed to put on a great, confident show, performing an AC/DC song and two originals.

Superego were up next with their collection of pop-punk and rock songs, of which they performed four. Superego were one of the two bands on the night from Stromness. The cover they chose was the recent Red Hot Chili Peppers’ hit, ‘Dani California’, which went down extremely well with the crowd – as did the rest of their set.

Next on was the oldest band of the night, the drummer being 21, Vague Inspiration. They have gained a fair few fans and have already released a single and recorded various other songs, however this was only their second public performance. All clad in ridiculous outfits (apart from Ian Sinclair, bassist), they played five songs to the audience, who certainly seemed to receive them well. All the songs were originals, marking them out from most of the other bands.

4th Dimension, the second band from Stromness, attempted to impress the crowd with their self-written rock songs, and I’d say they were pretty successful. Like the previous two bands, they also performed five songs, one of which was a cover of The Automatic’s ‘Monster’. They finished with what was probably my favourite of theirs, a catchy off-beat song.

Nearing the end of the night, it was time for Roll Machine to take to the stage. They immediately drove the crowd into a frenzy, proving themselves straight away the most popular band of the night. Before they even hit the stage, most of the audience were already chanting ‘ROLL MACHINE!’ – which they did between almost all of their songs, too. Roll Machine, five 15-year-olds, all from Kirkwall Grammar School apart from one, are due to release an EP in the near future, and they performed four songs from it. They ended with ‘Alright Now’ by Free, and were the only band wanted back on for an encore – which they didn’t do, much to the disappointment of the crowd.

The last band of the night was Audio Narcosis, who also went down well with the majority of the audience. They, like Vague Inspiration, performed no covers, which, aside from their quirky nu-metal sound, also helped them to stand out from the others. As well as playing songs from their album released earlier this year, they also introduced the audience to some new material, which was received well.

Shortly after Audio Narcosis left the stage, it was time to find out who would be playing again in the prestigious final. The three bands who made it through were Audio Narcosis, Superego and, surprisingly, Roll Machine – cue huge cheers all round.

Guitarist/singer of Audio Narcosis, Gordon Kovachich, told Orkney Today that he was ‘kind of’ surprised that they made it to the final. ‘We made a few mistakes in the first song so at that point, I wasn’t sure.’ Would he have been disappointed if they hadn’t got through? ‘Not really, we only entered for the fun of it.’

I also spoke to Pete Thomas, 19-year-old singer of Vague Inspiration, who said, ‘I’m quite happy - I don’t care that we didn’t go through as we still enjoyed it.’

From the cheers in the crowd, I think it’s safe to say that everyone who attended enjoyed the whole show, too. Bring on the second heat!