What the fuck are Battle of the Bands all about?

I thought that it would be a good idea to have an online record of Andy's article on Battle of the Bands from issue 6 of the fanzine. So here it is, to re-read or check out for the first time. If you're interested all the back issues (TNSrecords issues not the That's Not Skanking ones) are available as pdfs on our website.

What the fuck are Battle of the Bands all about?

I’ve been meaning to rant about this for a while, but only just got round to it. What is the point of a music competition? When I go to a gig (or play a gig for that matter) I want every single band to be mint. I want to come away thinking I’ve seen some great music. The last thing I want to do is to sit through bands hoping they are shit so mine/my friends band can win a HMV voucher or something. I cannot understand how anyone genuinely into music would want to put one of these things on. If you want a competition go to watch some sport, or if it must be music related go and vote on Pop Idol or the Eurovision song contest.

That is what a battle of the bands is really, a low budget version of that sort of mainstream shite.

To be fair I know bands who have got to do some great things because of competitions, such as quality gigs or studio time, but the way I see it, they shouldn’t have to enter a competition to be noticed and it is a sad state of affairs that bands do need to. If someone from the music industry likes a band, why not just help them rather then asking them to compete in a competition?

(There is a simple answer to that; people from the music industry are money grabbing wankers)

The thing about most battle of the bands is that they are nothing more than a glorified popularity contest to make a venue/promoter a bit of money. Nearly every one of these competitions results in the band who sells the most tickets winning the prize and even if it’s not totally judged by ticket sales it’s normally in the criteria somewhere. Just because a band has a lot of friends, doesn’t mean they are good. Also, the judges more often than not are influenced by their own personal taste. How many people can honestly say a band from a particular genre is better than one from another? It’s nearly always about opinion. Obviously some peoples opinions are more informed than others, but they are at the end of the day still opinions.

Anyway, I needed to get that off my chest. If you are in a band and you want to enter competitions, that’s your choice so I wish you well, but personally I think music is much better without a competitive element and that a community where bands support each other is much more enjoyable.