Titanic clash at The Drayman this Monday!
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Thursday nights = The Noisegate!
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Sanctorum triumph in Gravesend!
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BBC gives you advice about the music business!

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LATEST BAND QUEST RESULTS BELOW:

SUNDAY 01 MARCH - No Band Quest as opening night

MONDAY 02 MARCH - Band Quest - Heat 3 - Metal

1ST - CARPATHIA

2ND - MUTUALLY DESTRUCTIVE

3RD - CHASED TIL DAWN

TUESDAY 03 MARCH - Event cancelled

FRIDAY 06 MARCH - Band Quest - Heat 3 - Metal

1ST - REASONABLE DOUBT

1ST - DYSTOLIC

3RD - STORM THE GATES

Thanks from the Team at http://www.unifiedsounds.co.uk

Join the group on facebook now: Facebook group - Unified Sounds Presents BAND QUEST 2009!

Sponsors:

DINGO JACKS MUSIC STORE | ELEPHANT MUSIC | ROADRUNNER RECORDS UK | MEDIA SOURCING | WHATEVERNEXT RECORDS

Partners:

BLOODSTOCK-METAL TO THE MASSES | ORE NET SERVICES | JIGGA JAM STUDIOS | BANANA ROAD STUDIOS | DEMELZA | HELLFIRE FESTIVAL

Support from:

BEXLEY COUNCIL | DARTFORD COUNCIL | HOLLOWEBDESIGN

The alternative side of Band Quest 2009 continues tonight in Bexleyheath.

The first heat to be held at R.S.V.P sees total music insanity from THEIR NAME ESCAPES ME. Indie punkers ARCADES are also on the bill along with HOOF.

Win a Reading Ticket as guests of this events in a Super Draw! Ask at the event for details.

Invite people to this event on facebook by clicking here

Band Quest 2009 - Alternative Sundays at R.S.V.P every Sunday.

£2.00 for Gold loyalty card holders, £2.50 for those with flyers, £3.00 for everyone else.

What track would you really like to hear played by the DJs at Band Quest 2009 - Alternative Sundays? – Email us a request now!

Band Quest 2009 will be bringing the METAL TO THE MASSES to you every Monday in Bexleyheath as bands battle it out for a place at Bloodstock!

Heat 4 is a clash of the titans! One of last years beaten finalists, the 8 legged groove machine that is ZOCALO return to the Bloodstock trail again. They come up against popular metalcore outfit FALLING EMPIRE who have been packing out venues for the past year. Waiting in the wings are classical death metallers SHADOWCAST. DJ LACUSTA is still spinning those metal tunes.

Win a Bloodstock Ticket as guests of this event in a Super Draw! Ask at the event for details.

Invite people to this event on facebook by clicking here

Band Quest 2009 - Metal Mondays at The Drayman in Bexleyheath every Monday.

£2.00 for Gold loyalty card holders, £2.50 for those with flyers, £3.00 for everyone else.

What track would you really like to hear played by the DJs at Band Quest 2009 - Metal Mondays? – Email us a request now!

The alternative side of Band Quest 2009 continues tonight in Dartford.

Heat 4 sees punk rockers SUNRISE FALLING enter the arena against progressive alternative outfit THE HOPELESS SONS. THE GODLESS REDS also play.

Win a Reading Ticket as guests of this events in a Super Draw! Ask at the event for details.

Invite people to this event on facebook by clicking here

Band Quest 2009 - Alternative Tuesdays at the Darenth Suite, Acacia Hall every Tuesday.

£2.00 for Gold loyalty card holders, £2.50 for those with flyers, £3.00 for everyone else.

What track would you really like to hear played by the DJs at Band Quest 2009 - Alternative Tuesdays? – Email us a request now!

The Noisegate at the The Drayman in Bexleyheath every Thursday.

ROOM 1 (main floor) – Rock, Metal, Goth returns to the main floor at The Noisegate - expect a bigger mix of all things alternative.

ROOM 2 (upstairs) – Indie, indie disco etc.

2 Pool Tables

Projection Screens, Lighting, Effects!

7pm-Midnight - The whole night (Lower Floor)

BBQ and Patio (on the warm nights) or stating subject to weather

Drinks Promo's inc, Buy on get ONE FREE on bottles of wine, Vodka and Red Bull Mix £3, Fosters, Becks, Stella, Strongbow and selected house Spirits with Mixer £2.50, and '2 for 1 cocktails £5/£6 + More!

Staffed Door!

Special Promotional Feature Nights, with free stuff and Brand New Music!

Over 18's ID Essential

No entry after 11pm

FREE entry for Gold loyalty card holders - £1.00 for everyone else.

What track would you really like to hear played by the DJs at The Noisegate? – Email us a request now!

Heat 4 of the Gravesend metal part of Band Quest is here!

Last years Battle for Bloodstock winners DENOUNCE are a ferocious proposition in front of their home town crowd. LYCAN'S BLOOD and CARNAL RITES take up the challenge.

Win a Bloodstock Ticket as guests of this event in a Super Draw! Ask at the event for details.

Invite people to this event on facebook by clicking here

Band Quest 2009 - Metal Fridays at the Red Lion every Friday.

£2.00 for Gold loyalty card holders, £2.50 for those with flyers, £3.00 for everyone else.

What track would you really like to hear played by the DJs at Band Quest 2009 - Metal Fridays? – Email us a request now!

Bloodstock Open Air returns in 2009 and is set to increase in size for the 5th year running. Three days full of pure metal and a little bit more at Catton Hall!

Weekend tickets are available and can be ordered from the Bloodstock website - Order Bloodstock Open Air tickets.

Here are the bands confirmed so far:

• CARCASS
• ARCH ENEMY
• AMON AMARTH
• SATYRICON
• SAXON
• GWAR
• KATATONIA
• TURISAS
• MUNICIPAL WASTE
• ENSLAVED
• THE HAUNTED
• CANDLEMASS
• MOONSPELL
• BATTLELORE
• SABATON
• DIE APOKALYPTISCHEN REITER
• MILLION DOLLAR RELOAD
• BEHOLDER
• PYTHIA

For more information on the festival visit the Bloodstock website.

NEONFLY needs:

- Drummer

We need someone who will be committed to the band, as we have a pretty busy schedule for 2009 including a UK tour and many dates abroad in the works for this summer. We are looking for a London based drummer between the ages of 18 - 29 with a solid groove who can play really tight and in time to a click and with an eclectic music taste. Preferably someone who has his own drum kit and transport.. Contact the band here: neonfly@hotmail.co.uk or www.myspace.com/neonflyband.

BAND WITH NO NAME YET needs:

- Singer

Influenced by Vasoline-STP, Day that Never Comes-Metallica, Own Worst Enemy-Lit, In Bloom-Nirvana. Contact the band here: John Riddle jr224a@yahoo.com.

BAND WITH NO NAME YET needs:

- Song writing guitarist

Influenced by Clutch, Monster Magnet, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, QOTSA etc. Contact the band here: www.myspace.com/ajddk.

DRUGDEALER CHEERLEADER needs:

- Bass player

Contact the band here: info@drugdealercheerleader.com or www.myspace.com/drugdealercheerleader.

BAND WITH NO NAME YET needs:

- Singer

Influenced by Tool, Killswitch Engage etc. Contact the band here: Nel on 07798640786 or nelcooper@hotmail.com or Joe on 07752519676.

CONQUEST need:

- Bass player

Contact this band here: leslie.clayden@ntlworld.com or admin@roystone.com or ring Les Clayden on 07832 235715.

UNTIL I BLEED need:

- Guitarist (with some lead ability)
- Bassist
- Drummer
- Female vocalist

Contact this band here: tombwibble@yahoo.co.uk

ROY STONE needs:

- All musicians

Contact Roy Stone here: admin@roystone.com or www.myspace.com/roystonelink.

They want a gig list they can update, they want an image gallery, a music player and a news page as well as a contact page.

They don’t want to pay too much though...

How about all the above, including complete graphic design, and a super fast turnaround time, all for £150?*

This sounds too good to be true, and this is why the offer is only running for a limited time.

E-mail info@holloweb.co.uk to secure yourself this deal immediately!

*Excluding applicable hosting and domain fees. Terms and conditions apply – available on request.

RELEASING A SINGLE

Releasing your single is hard work. And lots of it. But, if you’re in a band and you want to get heard, it’s not hard work at all because this is what you want. It’s just part of the experience. To release your own single properly, you need time, patience, drive and a little know-how.

Thankfully, you don’t need too much money. The most important thing to spend your money on is the recording itself – make this sound as brilliant as you possibly can. You’ll hear people talking about spending money on PR, radio plugging, artwork and manufacturing. You don’t need to. To make any of those aspects work, you need to spend a lot of money… and it’s not worth spending a lot of money on PR without also spending a lot of money on radio plugging… and then the costs start to mount up. If you begin employing companies to do PR etc for you, you’ll end up spending about £20,000. If you’ve got that kind of money, then go for it – but remember, even if you have, you’ll need to have a corking reputation, you’ll need to have already achieved significant airplay and you’ll need a decent booking agent getting you decent paid gigs before any of those companies will even look at you anyway. Remember, someone that buys the single will want the single to sound good – they won’t care how much money you’ve spent to get it reviewed in NME (and for that to happen, we’re talking well above the budget of any unsigned band without any real contacts).

All of these expensive things can be done by yourself for free. As I said, this is clearly going to be a lot of very hard work… but it is completely worth your while.

Second part to follow next week.

Please take some time to check out the following websites:

BBC Kent Introducing Website

BBC Kent Introducing Myspace page

BBC Kent Introducing Facebook event

BBC Kent Introducing Newsletter signup

1st: Sanctorum
2nd: Roxville
3rd: Inner Fire

With the line-up making this heat look more like a semi-final than a opening round, it meant two quality bands would fall at the first hurdle tonight.

First up were local metallers Inner Fire (7/10). Their thrash-come-trad metal approach can sometimes really hit home. An example of this were their actual songs on the night. Each track contained a hook meaning the set was always interesting, with even a broken string failing to stop the momentum. Cliff Bond's Blaze Bailey/Glenn Danzig-esque vocals means the band have a unique sound locally and tonight they were supported by Gummby's glorius rumbling bass lines.

Their is no surprise that Sanctorum (8) are supporting the likes of Ill Nino. The small stage could hardly contain their gigantic metallic sound, which crashed around the venue like an overturned lorry. The riffs contained the punches while every song seemed to include a tecnically excellent guitar solo and impressive vocals from Aaron Sly. They not only came out on top tonight but must be one of the favourites for that Bloodstock place.

Sleaze machine Roxville (8) could have been forgiven for feeling a little out of place in a competition mainly full of metal bands, but they came, they played, they conquered (well nearly). Like a lot of the other hair/sleaze metal bands from London Roxville do nothing new. The songs sound like they could have been written in 1986, but when they are this good does it really matter? With a large section of the crowd dancing and vocals sounding like an improved version of Spike from the Quireboys, Roxville proceeded in turning the venue into a 2nd hand night at Decadence. With riffs stinking of sleaze and every song as catchy as the next they put in a fine performance. Catch them in London if you can.

Review by Alan Hicks

Here I am Wembley Arena, in the pantheon of Rock Royalty: Judas Priest, Megadeth and Testament all on the same stage.

Testament (10/10), like fellow thrash brothers Megadeth (who are on later), have been around for ever and who’s recent resurgence has been welcomed not only by myself but by many others within the thrash community.

Tonight they just simply kick butt and have a good time doing it, rolling through classics such as ‘Into the Pit’, ‘Disciples of the Watch’, ‘Over the Wall’ like they were still fresh and new the day they were created plus the new songs off the new album sound every more brutal live. They are a unit of military precision and Chuck Billy presiding over this skirmish. New Dogs do not necessarily have to learn new tricks to sound invigorated and full of life and here Testament are a credit to that, everything bang on. They were lively and musically really came out and the crowd love it!

Megadeth (9) are practically an institution in the metal world and was born in the same year as Testament, Dave Mustaine a man who is few amongst his peers by being able to claim bragging rights to forming two of the founding bands of the thrash scene (Metallica and Megadeth). They became a bit of a joke during the 90’s as Mustaine traded blows with Metallica and wherever they went you could feel the ghost of ‘tallica in the rafters somewhere.

Yet since their reformation in 2004 and Mustaine’s recuperation of a major nerve injury and his recent ‘finding of god’, Megadeth seem to have found some kind of peace. The bitching has stopped and mutual respect reigns supreme, allowing Mustaine and co to write two albums (The System has Failed and United Abominations respectively) that have catapulted them back into the limelight.

They seem to have found new life and tonight show this, the recent calm spewing off the stage; it’s rather nice to see Mustaine and Broderick throw solos back and forth to each other but there is a down side to this new found calm they seem to come across dry and bog standard, doing just another show, maybe they don’t want to up stage Judas Priest but this was rather unexpected from a band who still write riffs and solos that have to be played at the speed of light.

Classics are thrown out and like Metallica’s ‘Sick of the Studio’ tour a year or so ago it is almost a Megadeth hit parade: ‘Killing is my Business’, ‘Peace sells’, ‘Holy wars’, ‘Rust in Peace’, ‘Symphony of Destruction’, ‘Sweating Bullets’ all roll out and sound fantastic.

My only gripe (and is has always been my gripe with Megadeth), Dave Mustaine is a great lead guitarist and musician but is not the greatest singer, with an irritatingly winey voice that seems to have got worse with age and become more grating. They rock but seem a bit dry sadly and at times it feels like they are playing just because they have to and not ‘cause they want to (something Metallica have been accused of doing now and then recently) plus if Mustaine had sorted his vocals out during their break-up/hiatus they would be on for a 10 but sadly I must give them 9.

Judas Priest (10) end the night doing what they do best, writing awesome slabs of metal. Their set almost becomes a hit parade during certain segments of the show ‘Breaking the Law’, ‘Painkiller’, ‘Living after Midnight’, ‘Hell bent for Leather’ are rolled out with pure glee to the masses tonight but then when your Judas Priest with a set lists that are literally greatest hit albums you can forgive the moments of heavy metal karaoke. They played a few tracks from the new album that sat nicely in the set. Here I think the album Nostradamus has found a home not as an attempt at making a concept album that comes out looking, feeling and sounding really half assed, a collection of songs rather than a story but as separate songs in their own right in a set list with other tracks and bona fide classics. Rob Halford gives an amazing performance for a man his age; yet like Robert Plant during the Led Zep reunion last year at the O2 there are times his voice breaks is obvious he isn’t hitting the top end like he used to, but when he hits those high notes every now and then they sound even more powerful. You could say that Priest were jumping on the reunion band wagon when Halford returned in 2003 but it seems to have given them a new energy that was maybe staring to wane during the final years of the Ripper Owens era, plus the space and time apart seems to have done some good too by allowing old feelings and frustrations to wither and die.

Their resurgence is much welcomed amongst metal-heads world-wide (but especially the British) and along with Saxon’s recent return to form, Def Leppard’s constant chipping away, Motorhead and Maiden’s continual world domination the bastions of the NWOBHM are back with a vengeance. What do we need now? Not only a new NWOBHM bands but a NWOBHM one of all day concert would be nice!

Rule Britannia!

Review by Warren Holmes

Only two more days until AMON AMARTH will hit the road again to headline including their Metal Hammer sponsored London show on March 9th!

"The long-awaited European tour has finally come and we can't wait to play a full set featuring songs from 'Twilight Of The Thunder God' for our European fans. We're really looking forward to being part of the 'Full Of Hate' festival tour with so many great bands — OBITUARY, LEGION OF THE DAMNED and KEEP OF KALESSIN plus special guests at selected shows. We've got a bit of a different setlist planned for this tour so we're looking forward playing some songs we haven't done live very often. Obviously, some songs from the latest album, but also some older ones!” "The upcoming months we've got a pretty busy schedule. Following the European tour, we'll be heading back to the U.S. to play in most of the States we didn't get to do last year. We'll also be performing for the first time in South America. Afterwards we have a number of festival appearances throughout Europe and after that we'll most likely have a break for a while and if we do any shows it will be in places we don't get to play very often.”

"This year's goal is to finally be able to perform in these places we have yet to perform at. If we don't see you at the shows already arranged, hopefully we'll see you at the shows that are in the process of planning."

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