Red Stripe music awards

Red Stripe music awards, headlined by the View @ Heaven 28/04/10

Heaven played host to the Red Stripe Music Awards 2010, which featured a whole host of new talent as well as a headline slot from Scottish band The View.
After hundreds of gigs played around the country in many different venues, the final group of bands were cut down to just four, who made it to the London finals to battle out as champions.
The winner of the competition wins a prestigious slot at the Great Escape festival, the leading festival for new music.
The four finalists were; The Laurel Collective, Come On Gang!, Hold Fast and Patrick James Pearson, and they all gave their very best shot at the prize. But after a great night Laurel Collective were crowned the winners, and personally I think they were the best band overall. They were presented with their prize, as well as many free cans of Red Stripe by last year’s winner Ben Howard.
As the four bands left the stage, the crowd and the Laurel Collective, who are now very happy and getting very drunk settle down to watch headliners The View. The Scottish band have been out of the spotlight for some time, but with a fantastic second album under their belt, the band are back in true force. Playing mostly new tracks, with a sprinkle of old ones the fans whooped and cheered the guys on until it was time to go home.
Overall, a good night, the best band won the competition and the headliners were a real treat!

Elliot Minor

Elliot minor @ Relentless garage 13/04/10

Elliot Minor have always been one of those bands who I never really liked. I don’t mean that in a horrible way, just that I never really paid much attention to them in the same way I might other bands. However as I waited for them to come onstage at the relentless garage in London, surrounded by, let’s just say a lot of people younger than me, I had something of an epiphany. Counting all of the great songs they’ve had on my fingers I realise that actually this band have had a lot of damn good songs, and suddenly I’ve found myself quite excited.
They jumped onstage with a considerable amount of enthusiasm and smashed out hits such as ‘The White One Is Evil’, and ‘Parallel Worlds’, as well as a handful of brand new tracks. As the gig was in full swing I felt myself being won over by the York quintet, who excited the crowd with every song.
The highlight for me though, and probably a lot of other people as well was the cover the band did of Owl City’s ‘Fireflies’, and it was unbelievably stunning. If I wasn’t won over before, then this track really impressed me to the point where I actually decided that I might be turning into an Elliot Minor fan!
After the gig, the band came and hung out with a few fans before leaving; a really nice bunch of guys who really know how to perform, and even managed to convert me into a supporter!