Music
Meet the A Shot at Discovery finalists: Leicester
Meet the Leicester finalists for The Pogues Irish Whiskey Presents: A Shot at Discovery ahead of the regional heats.
The Pogues Irish Whiskey have teamed up with Academy Music Group, the people behind all of those iconic live music venues across the UK, to award one unsigned band with a huge prize. The national winner will enjoy £3000 towards new instruments, studio time with The Pogues as guest producers, live opportunities and management services, plus much more.
With the regional finals kicking off on Sunday 5 March, we’ll be bringing you an introduction to each of the bands scheduled to play.
See all of our A Shot at Discovery coverage here.
Here are the Liverpool finalists, who will take to the The Scholar on Tuesday 14 March. You can grab tickets here.
Flip Like Wilson
Describe your sound and how you formed.
I guess our sound would fall under pop-punk but from back in 2004 not your usual pop-punk you’d expect to hear today! We formed back in 2013 when it was just Joe, Kyle and Jack with an old singer. This lineup came about in 2014 when Joe (vocals) met Oscar by working at the same Co-op, only to find out he loved our sound and wanted to be in the band. So Joe moved from bass to vocals and since then Oscar has been the bassist!
I guess we have loads of bands that guide our sound but to name a few. Bands like Don Broco, Enter Shikari, Lower Than Atlantis. Even bands like U2 and System Of A Down have an affect on our sound as a band.
Go Primitive
Warwickshire’s own, Go Primitive are four mates who’ve been pulled together by their passion for music. It may be because of that drive that this alt-rock band’s focus always remains on the creation of their music first and foremost. Combining big guitar riffs with powerful melodies and anthemic choruses to forge a unique sound, Go Primitive have recently released their EP, 100 Ways. They’ve also supported Mallory Knox, The Subways and Lonely The Brave.
Jitterz
Describe your band and how you formed.
We are a two-piece punky rock & roll band. We formed after Beth spotted Jamie playing drums like a bad-ass at a local gig. We nattered about common interests, and have been making noise together ever since.
Our influences include lots of rock & roll & blues, good books, bad break-ups, the world falling apart and kittens.
Royal Arcade
Describe your sound and how you formed.
Music to lose yourself in, jangly guitars and spaced out vocals. It varies from time to time, but those are two things you can definitely expect to hear. Royal Arcade formed in 2015 off the back of another band, Alligatr, that Sam and Jack used to be members of. We started writing similar sounding stuff and realised we actually shared a lot of the same influences, so Royal Arcade sort of just worked itself out.
We all have our own influences that go into it, but the main ones we all share are bands like Slowdive, Beach Fossils, Deerhunter. Bands from the shoegaze revival scene and older bands who started it off too. Other influences are old kraut bands like Neu!, and ambient stuff like Aphex Twin and Brian Eno, especially in our more instrumental based jams. We all sorta have our own musical influences that just come out in whatever we’re playing, it all just works.
Stupid Boots
Hailing from the Midlands, Stupid Boots, have been described as a rare band by Radsound. Mainly because of their musical abilities, despite their young age. This lively quintet blends upbeat indie with punk rock and heartfelt lyrics to boot. Their well-received debut EP enjoyed radio play on Rugby FM and Touch FM, as well as BBC Introducing. If that isn’t enough, Stupid Boots also have a ‘Boots bus’ which brings local fans to their gigs around the country.
The Brandy Thieves
![The Brandy Thieves - The Blackbird [Official Music Video]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2SxFdjjSIfE/0.jpg)
Describe your sound and how you formed.
A reviewer recently described The Brandy Thieves as “a beautiful soulful racket” and that is a fairly good synopsis. The music we make is really a combination of a lot of elements; gypsy rhythms and punk energy, ska grooves and folk storytelling, soulful blues with pop sensibilities, and that has helped the band create a sound that is pretty unique to us.
Raucous, infectious, enthralling and captivating are just a few of the words that have been used to describe our live shows, because live is really where the band thrives. We formed in the backstreet bars of Leicester’s cultural quarter having met each other through a simple internet ad and we have been tearing up the local music scene and playing our hearts out ever since.
The band all come form a wide range of musical backgrounds so it is really hard to pin-point one particular artist or even genre. There is a lot of influences with us, everything form Jamaican Ska to swing, punk and metal and I guess a little bit of the Delta Blues has slipped in there recently.
Cain’s background comes from Irish traditional music and that’s where the storytelling element of our songs comes from. Andrea’s heroes are Tina Turner and Sister Rosetta Tharpe and that can be really heard in her vocals and seen in her performance. Joe learned his trade in a Big Band and Chris is a pure punk rocker. Gogol Bordello are certainly a massive influence on us but so are The Pogues, in terms of both the song writing and performance, and that’s why we are so excited to be in this competition.
The Jangles
Describing themselves as ‘twenty-something chancers chasing the dream’, The Jangles may just be able to catch it. With soaring melodies, intertwining guitars sprinkled over a solid rhythm section and great lyrics, the band’s been at it for nearly two years now. That includes playing a number of venues with a back pocket filled with toe-tapping riffs.
Find out more about the Pogues Irish Whiskey: A Shot At Discovery competition over on the Academy Music Group website.
Grab tickets to all of the A Shot At Discovery regional finals through our friends over at TicketWeb.
