Battle of the Bands

We are very keen supporters of original live music and will offer encouragement to bands and artistes willing to play live.

The current local live music scene is not the best it has ever been, being dominated by covers and tribute bands.  The reason is that the majority of the public want to hear something they know and so promoters of venues will always prefer to book these types of bands rather than risk a small turnout with an unknown original band.

We are delighted to announce that we have become co-sponsors of Wolverhampton's Battle of the Bands for 2008-2009 along with Beacon Radio and Banks's Brewery. We are giving away time in the studio to produce some quality recordings to both the winners and runners up of the competition. We are also giving vouchers to all the semi finalists of the current competition which can be used towards payment of recording here at M2..

For more information on the competition visit the Battle of the Bands website

Here are some hints for live work and entering competitions that you may find useful..

  1. Rehearse like crazy, even to the extent of choreographing some movements, because it has to look good as well as sound good.
  2. Work out routines if, for example, someone breaks a string or a drum skin.
  3. Work out routines if you have to change instruments between numbers as this can sometimes cause wasted dead time.
  4. Beg borrow or steal a guitar tuner and tune up before you go on stage.  Keep checking the tuning at regular intervals before going on stage as temperature fluctuations can cause guitars to go out of tune, and a badly tuned guitar sounds ****ing awful.
  5. Check all your leads carefully and if possible run a spare to your amps so if there is a problem you can change quickly.
  6. Buy new batteries for your pedals as they have a habit of failing at the worst possible moment.
  7. Make sure you have spare guitar strings or even better, a spare guitar tuned and ready.
  8. If you have a friend helping out, or indeed have employed a roadie, make sure they are as clued up as you and know what to do if there is an ‘emergency’.
  9. Drummers - do have you spare sticks, a spare pedal and snare?
  10. Keyboard players - check leads and if you use a MIDI lead get a spare, they can be a problem too.
  11. Singers - some of you may have your own ways of warming up, but as singing is a use of muscles it is a good idea to do some gentle warming up exercises before you go on.
  12. Your entrance can be as important as your exit.
  13. Don’t try too hard as sometimes this can come across wrong, just do your own thing when you are up there.  As long as you are prepared behind the scenes then everything should go well.  Remember you are playing to hundreds of people who are there not just to see you but you want to try to impress them too, so, don’t play to just your own fans and try to keep out any ‘in jokes’
  14. Enjoy yourselves and good luck and remember you are in the 'entertainment' business.