NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Virgin Mobile) - Nearly 2,500 bands applied for this year's Road to V competition - and they've been whittled down to just 14 finalists, two of which will get to open the V
Music Festival and play to an audience of thousands in Stafford and Chelmsford on August 16th and 17th. The competition was fierce this year, with a huge variety of unsigned bands entering, spanning all musical genres including guitar rock, punk, electro, R&B, dance, ska, indie.... the list goes on.
And the final 14 are:
The standard of entries to this year's Road to V was incredible, the fourteen finalists all have a great sound, we're really impressed. We'll just have to wait and see who the fortunate two are - I wish them all the best of luck.
Imperial Leisure, Flashguns, Idle Lovers, Mama Shamone, The More Assured, Walk. Don't Walk. Matt Trakker, The Wireless, Married To The Sea, Alexis Blue, The Rebs, Situationists, KC and The Shallow Call.
The unsigned bands are now set to perform in a series of live gigs at Carling Academy Liverpool on 7th & 8th May and Carling Academy Islington,13th, 14th & 15th May, in front of an expert panel which this year includes Dirty Pretty Things frontman Carl Barat, A&R man Sav Remzi, Mags Revell, the promotor of V Festival, NME's Mark Beaumont and Paul Samuels from Crown Music Management. They'll be critiquing the acts and making their recommendations as to which bands will get to open the V Music Festival this summer, in Chelmsford and Stafford, on the 16th and 17th August.
Each gig will be broadcast this summer on Channel 4 from June and the expert panel will then decide who wins with the help of viewer reviews - the winning bands then get the chance of a lifetime to open one of the UK's biggest festivals.
Since 2004, Road to V has nurtured great new talent, with bands such as The Young Knives, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Brightlights all opening the festival and going on to major success including Mercury Music nominations and film careers.
You can keep up with the competition on unsigned bands. If you've got Virgin Media at home, then the super-fast broadband connection will get you there even quicker. Staying with Virgin Media, if you're a total music fan, you can check out the last four years of Road to V at Virgin TV Music on Demand - channel 300 for those in the know and Virgin customers.
Even on the road you can download all the cool stuff, as Sony Ericsson, following on the success of last year, are Virgin Mobile's official partner for Road to V and the V Music Festival. Simply click onto Virgin Mobile Bites on your Sony Ericsson handset and enter a world of music on the move.
Rosie Newey, head of music sponsorship at Virgin Media said, "The standard of entries to this year's Road to V was incredible, the fourteen finalists all have a great sound, we're really impressed. We'll just have to wait and see who the fortunate two are - I wish them all the best of luck."
For more information please contact:
Issued by onlinefire PR on behalf of Virgin Mobile:
James Fell: 0207 927 7520 or james.fell(at)onlinefirepr.com
Virgin Mobile:
0845 600 6272 or press.office(at)virginmobile.com
Simon Dornan, 07847 279666 or simon.dornan(at)virginmobile.com
Notes to Editors
The V Festival:V Festival is now in its 12th year and was the first UK festival to operate over two days and swap line-ups overnight. Since 96, some of the world's greatest performers have graced the stages including Radiohead, Morrissey, The Strokes, Coldplay, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Blur, Faithless, Razorlight and Kylie.
