“Err… What’s that? Battle of the what?!”
After the event was announced we put up a list on the school notice board for band members to sign up and enter for the auditions. We had no idea at all what the response would be like!! We put up a single piece of paper and by the end of lunchtime another list had to be printed off as the previous one was FULL and almost illegible with so many names and arrows all over it. It seemed that band members had ‘indecisive syndrome’ or it could just be the fact that band members were bought over by another band for a couple of million and all that politics. Anyway, the response was overwhelming and we had participants ranging from Year 7 right up to Sixth Form! We even had a band come up and asked if Year 6 pupils were allowed to join! Wow! The bands had approximately one month to prepare a song or at least part of a song for the audition.

One sunny Wednesday lunchtime, we thought we could trot along to the music room confident that no one would be there and we would have plenty of time to practise a song. Oh, but we were so very wrong! The Music Room was full of bands practising their songs, each in their own little area of the music room. Music was ringing throughout the music room, guitars jamming away, but even the drums as loud as they were, couldn’t drown the sound of the school bell signaling the end of lunch. Day after day, the school grounds remained tranquil and the music room was constantly packed with bands rehearsing their songs. And even if the Music Room was unavailable during lunch times, one could walk past any of the English classrooms and find bands practising!

The day of the audition finally arrived. We had no clue what to expect. Along with Mr Dave Cale aka the ‘Great One’ and Mrs Whittaker, we listened as the bands came and went for their auditions and ‘ooh la la’ we knew there was going to be some tough competition! However, Backstreet Boys I’m afraid there just wasn’t enough of the AJ, Howie, Kevin, Brian and Nick to convince us…

The lead up to the event night, proved to be extremely exhausting. Booking the hall, organizing a rehearsal time, setting up the amplifiers and the drum kit on the stage, the tickets, the posters, the program for the night, refreshments, finding ‘non-bribable’ judges, technical crew, backstage, making sure the bands are doing alright and haven’t fired a band member already! And lastly the PRIZES!

Yes the prizes, what everyone was looking forward to! A trophy with ‘EIC Battle Of The Bands 2005’ engraved on it, kindly sponsored by Mr Stanley Yap, awaited the winners. The winners were also to get a gold medal and FNAC vouchers each, and the runners-up a silver medal each.

All too soon the night arrived, Friday, 25th February! There was excitement and an overdose of nerves in the air. With guitars tuned and drum sticks ready to hand, the bands waited patiently in the science labs, which Mrs Gardner had very kindly let us use. The hall filled up and our favourite host, Mr Steve Whittaker kicked off the show. There were nine bands competing, judged by our highly qualified judges; Mrs Whittaker, Dr Mike Sutcliffe, Harry Smyth Year 12, Lizzo Stevenson and Beka Laliberte Year 13. They were judged on harmony, stage presence, the overall performance and, most importantly, working together as a band.

It was a tough decision for the judges to make, ALL the bands performed exceedingly well, but there had to be one winner. The suspense was unbearable! With Mr Griffin ready to hand out the prizes, the runners-up Etienne and Ben Year 11, with their song AC/DC - ‘Fade to Black’ went on stage to collect a well deserved medal for their superb performance. Then came the announcement for the winners of the first ever EIC Battle of the Bands event. A huge round of applause went up for Hayley and Rio Year 10, who, with their version of Avril Lavigne’s ‘Naked’ became the winners of the very first ‘Battle of the Bands’.

It was a truly amazing night. All were true performers that night. With only six weeks to prepare for the event, and some of them had never been on stage before, I can only describe the standard of performances that night as something truly amazing!

And last but not the least, a huge thank you to Mrs Whittaker for her never ending help and expertise. Mr Dave Cale, who was constantly there for the bands, fine tuning them as well as helping with the event itself. Dr Maria Sutcliffe, with all her support and also organising the charity side of the event. Mr Geoff Lawrence for all his help with the posters, tickets, sound, lighting, etc., basically the event wouldn’t have been the same without him! The technical crew, Anastasia Markova, James Lavelle and Charlie Packwood. A massive thank you for backstage crew and co-organisers Jenna Whitaker and Chrissie Gardner and the ‘thirst-quenchers’ Charlotte Atteck and her crew who provided the refreshments. Once again, many congratulations to all the band members who participated in this event. We managed to raise the tremendous amount of 860 euros! With so much hidden talent and such enthusiasm, I hope to see you all in next year’s ‘Battle of the Bands 2006’?! Yikes!

Sheen Yap