London – The annual Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition offers unsigned artists based in the U.K. or Ireland the chance to compete for a spot on one of the main stages at this iconic festival in June. This year over 7,000 entries were received and Best New Bands’ London correspondent was one of 40 music writers tasked with whittling them down into a long list of 120 performers. Each act submitted an original song via a SoundCloud link, together with a video of a live performance. After duplicates and spoof entries were taken out (let’s hear it for Jesus, Elvis, The Beatles, One Direction…), each writer was faced with the stimulating, if daunting, mission of pulling rank on around 160 entries. The task was to pick just three acts to go forward.
Thumbing through the entries, the first thing that strikes you is you don’t recognise many names; in my case, just two. It just goes to show how much new, untapped talent is out there. Quite a few, though, could benefit from more imaginative band or stage names. I was going to say what my favourite names were… but I’m struggling to sound enthused. By contrast the standard was reasonably high musically, leaving aside a number of quite average rock bands. Folk, acoustic and indie acts scored the most plus points within the genres I covered. The entries were not all from young bands or singer-songwriters; the more mature and seasoned performers were quite well represented too.
The smart entrants submitted their best original song and a video showing them playing a different song live; something that showed a broader dimension to their art. Many though fell down by posting a polished studio recording and then a limp video of the same song, sometimes with appalling sound quality, fit-inducing camera work or off-key vocals. A video of a live rehearsal or an unplugged session in the kitchen gave a far better impression of an act’s capabilities than a pixelated phone recording of a dodgy pub gig. The next trick is to choose a genre wisely. Why put down ‘Blues’ if you sound like Neil Young playing bluegrass? Or submit a promo video as your live piece, even if you are pretending to play in it. Finally avoid self-fulfilling prophesies, like references to masochism in the song title.
All that said, it was still a tough call to settle on just three acts to make it through to the next stage. So my top 20 became ten, then six but the final three were the songs that stood out first time round and dealt spades on repeated listens. There was more than enough in the live performances of these three acts that showed, in quite different ways, they had the potential to hold a Glastonbury audience. So my three to go through to the next round are:
Lucy Kitchen – “Blue Eyes”
A simply beautiful, haunting song, sensitively arranged. Lucy’s vocal tone has hints of the late Sandy Denny in it – a rare and precious thing indeed – and conveys a level of intimacy that would command a big stage as much as a small room. A real gem of both song and singer.
Sankofa – “Grasp”
A song that draws you in immediately on the strength of its melodic hooks and passion of its vocal delivery. Like all really good songs, repeat listens reveal hidden depths, not least in the sharp warnings for mankind lyrically embedded, yet peppered with hope. Sankofa aspires to greatness!
The Courtesans – “Indigo”
The Courtesans deliver dark, compelling slices of the gothic and theatrical. “Indigo” bristles with menace, demonstrating tight ensemble playing and vocal adeptness in equal measure. The band plays with raw passion live and, as the name may give away, the four-piece are hardly shrinking violets in the costume department.
What happens next? You can check out the full list of 120 acts on the Glastonbury site now. In the next two weeks, 120 will become a shortlist of just eight acts by a judging panel including Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis. The chosen eight then battle it out on April 11 at the live finals at Pilton Working Men’s Club, close to the Worthy Farm festival site, to determine the outright winner. Best New Bands will be there!
Tony Hardy
Tony’s great passion in life is music and nothing gives him more pleasure than unearthing good, original new music and championing independent musicians. His association with Best New Bands brings great opportunities for this. He also writes for Consequence of Sound and is a judge for Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition.
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