Chorlton Band win place in International competition

• 7th Sep 2003

Chorlton band 'Giant Planets', have won a place at this years Boddingtons YGG Unsigned 2003'.They play heat 1 on Thursday 13 February at one of Manchester's premier live music venues 'The Palace Nightclub in Levenshulme'.Band spokesperson Phill said “We want to win this competition and be the next world conquering band from Chorlton after the 'Bee Gees' & 'Badly Drawn Boy'. It would be great if local people from the area to came down to support us, tickets are £3-there are 5 bands playing so that's just 60p a band.”

The prestigious competition has attracted entries from all over the UK and Ireland. It is being held in and is part of the city's 'Manchester Irish Festival (link), which is now the biggest Irish Festival in Europe.

The event organiser Tony Hennigan said “The inspiration behind the competition was from a demo tape from a then unknown Irish Mancunian band called 'Oasis'. The tape is now in the club's musical archives and the rest as they say is Rock n Roll history.

Some of the World's biggest Music stars such as U2, The Corrs, Westlife, Ash, The Smiths, Happy Mondays, Badly Drawn Boy and The Doves, all have Irish roots and we want to continue to support the next generation of superstars.

The event has grown into one of the UK's biggest battle of the bands competitions for bands with Irish roots. Over a £1,000 worth of prizes are being sponsored by Alive, Boddingtons, the Levenshulme Pub Company, Blue Print Studios, Cutting Room recording studios, Blue Room studios and 24rockfest.com. Last year the competition attracted entries from as far away as Australia and Canada.” The Prizes include £500 cash to be shared between 1st,2nd & 3rd. Two days recording time is being offered by 'Cutting Room studios' which is same studio that Oasis used to record their first demo in. Another prize is forty hours of rehearsal time, in the state of the art 'BluePrint Studios' and finally a days recording for the runner up at Blue Room studios. The aim of the event is to provide a showcase for biggest unsigned acts with Irish roots and to give them a helping hand on the road to stardom. It is part of the Manchester Irish Festival, which is the biggest Irish Festival in Europe. The 2002 winners were metal band Dr Rinse. The band have since signed a deal with 'Starsailors' management team and video clips from their live appearance at last years YGG final are shown on their website link

Heats take place on Thurs 13 February, Fri 21 & Sat 22 February with the final taking place on Thurs 13 March 2003.