The weekend saw more great attendances for Battle Of The Bands 2010, and now we have all but one of the semi-finalists...

Congratulations to Gabbidon who emerged as winners of Heat 16 on Sunday, and have now booked their berth in Semi-Final 3 on March 19th!
Possibly the youngest band ever to have qualified to the semi-finals of Battle Of the Bands are The Town, two 15 year-olds and a 14 year-old who have only been together for 8 months and have never played in any previous bands, won Heat 15 on Friday night. The boys have booked their place in Semi-Final 4 on March 27th, so well done lads!
Congratulations to The Nova Fives who emerged as winners of Heat 14, and have now booked their berth in Semi-Final 3 on March 19th!
Well done Cathode Ray Catastophe, winners of Heat 13 - lucky number for them! - and also to Heresy who emerged as winners of Heat 12.

Congratulations are due to Torn, Heat 11 winners, and to Follow The Fallen who won Heat 10 on Sunday.

Facade were victorious at Heat 9 on Saturday - they & PeopleAreThings, who emerged as winners of Heat 8, will be be featuring in the Semi-Finals.

Congratulations also to Befall The Aftermath who emerged as winners of Heat 7, and have won a place in the Semi-Finals.

Captain Horizon were the victors in Heat 6, while Heats 5 & 4 were taken by The Monobloggers & Fused respectively.

Heat 3 was postponed due to The Great Freeze, & is now rescheduled for Sunday 21st of February, line up TBC - we'll let you know as soon as we get the details.

Signify were victorious in Heat 2. Well done them!

And finally, the first heat was won by Gornal's own 12 Gauge -http://www.myspace.com/twelvegaugerock - who will now go through to the Semi - Finals.

The Little Civic is looking to introduce as many local bands as possible to their superb new venue, so that they can see for themselves where the centre for live local talent is!

Calling all bands! Remember, it's STILL not too late to enter the competition as the Little Civic's January and February schedule is fully dedicated to accommodate as many heats as possible - so get your applications in to phil@wolvescivic.co.uk now!! Quick!!!

Bands will be battling it out to win their place at the semi-finals throughout January and February and then they'll be hoping to win through to the esteemed final in the Wulfrun Hall on Saturday 17th April, where the winners of Battle Of The Bands Wolverhampton 2010 will be crowned and rewarded with:

£1000!!!

A free recording session at M2 Studio!!!

A photo shoot with a professional photographer!!!

A bespoke website designed and hosted by Surge Music!!!

More goodies!!!

Entrants will be judged on several criteria including:
Presentation/Delivery
Songwriting
Originality
Vibe
Audience Reaction
with bonus points awarded for every 10 tickets they sell.

It's not necessarily all over for the bands who haven't won a heat though! If enough people vote for them on the Battle Of The Bands website at http://botb1.wolvescivic.co.uk, they can still win through to the final by winning the Online Wildcard!!

The line-ups of all heats will be available online at the Battle Of The Bands Official Website: http://botb1.wolvescivic.co.uk, and details will also be listed right here on Surge music, while below is a list of all confirmed dates of the heats, Semi-Finals and Final...

Heats - Wolverhampton Little Civic
January 9, 10, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29 + 31
February 4, 5, 7, 21(Rescheduled Heat 3)

Semi-Finals - Wolverhampton Little Civic
February 20 + 26
March 19 + 27

Final - Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall
Saturday 17th April

Tickets priced £4.00 (for all rounds of the competition) are available from Midland Box Office: 0870 320 7000 or online at www.wolvescivic.co.uk

For more information, visit the BOTB website:

http://botb1.wolvescivic.co.uk

Saturday 9th January saw the opening of the new Little Civic venue at The Slade Rooms in Broad Street - the venue promises to be the hub for Wolverhampton's thriving local music scene, and we here at Surge think it's very apt that the new stage was christened with the first heat of Battle of the Bands 2010.

Attendances over the first 10 heats of this year's Battle of the Bands are already double those of the first 10 heats in 2009.

Jonn Penney, Press Officer for the Civic, Wulfun Hall & associated venues, told us:

'We have been delighted to see audiences swelled by customers who have no allegiance to any of the bands participating in the competition - it seems that people are coming out simply to hear new music in our new venue. This new trend is most encouraging, because it means that The Slade Rooms are already fulfilling the role of hub for new music in the Midlands!'