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North East Live Battle of the Bands
Round Six - The Wildcard Round!And so we are at the final week of the regular rounds of our battle! This week marked the return of Electric Nightmares (round one), The Banter (Round 2) and Red Maser (round 5), who all scored the highest as runners up through the previous weeks.
Tonight they got a second chance to get into the semis and all three bands were up for it and raring to go!
Electric Nightmares
 Electric Nightmares were our first act up tonight. In their round they dazzled Doc Browns with their set made up of original and cover songs, tonight they played a set made up entirely of their own original material.  What is remarkable about this band is that they are so young (ages range from 13 - 16) yet they are writing material of a much older genre.
This four piece can hold their own in the Classic Rock field - their own material within the confines of the style yet different enough to stand out. They currently have songs available to purchase from i tunes and are definately ones to watch. Electric Nightmares ended their set to a thunderous applause and kicked off tonights contest in style!
Red Maser
Up next we had the runners up from last weeks contest, Red Maser. Last week they put on a highly entertaining set made up of covers and original material.Made up of three lads from Middlesbrough, Red Maser were very active last year on the local circuit but have stood back over the last few months to concentrate on university.
 They have returned with a vengeance and put on a brilliant performance tonight proving that they are one of the foremost local bands out there at the moment. Even when there was a slight mishap with the bass strap the guys continued with Yatesy sitting on the floor and still managing to dance! A big thank you goes to Ben from Radio Teessdale (also one of our judges) who saved the day - or night with a set of screwdrivers and a quick repair on stage during one of the set! Tonight Red Maser were amusing and delighted everybody with their performance and with no sign of nerves this week they positively shone.
The Banter
And so we came to our final act of the night. With the first two putting on brilliant sets, The Banter had everything to go for as they took to the stage.
 All the way from Whitby these lads have proved they have a certain class that sets them apart from other bands of the same genre. The fact that they thoroughly enjoy what they do shows whenever we see them perform. A full set of all original material played to perfection entertained Doc Browns and the onstage interaction between the artists showed everyone that The Banter are a band to be reckoned with. A fantastic performance ended tonights Wildcard round and it all rested on the judges as to who would be going through to take that final place in the semi-finals.
We have put 5 categories in the judging criteria for this battle. Entertainment Value, Originality, Presentation, Musical Ability and Overall performance. Each band can score a maximum of 50 points from each judge based on the five categories.
I was informed by two of our judges that tonights decision was possibly the most difficult they had had to make as all three bands were outstanding. There has to be one winner though and the final result showed that Red Maser clinched the final place!
A big thank you goes out to all of our bands who have entertained us brilliantly over the last six weeks, every one of them have been fantastic and on another night would have possibly made it to the semi finals.
The next two weeks we have two line-ups of three amazing bands. The first semi will feature Silent Club, Innuendo and Shoebox, the following week we will welcome back Such Great Heights, Lithium Speed Dementia and Red Maser. Only two of the six can go through to the final!
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