The 2008 Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands came to a close on Sunday after six weeks of performances from the best of Kilkenny’s musicians.
Three-piece progressive rock outfit South were named as winners in what was the closest contested final in competition’s eight year existence.
In second place was metal group Kerbstomp and a special prize was introduced by the judges to acknowledge the powerful performance of drummer Daire Nolan who was awarded 'Best Musician'.
Hundreds of local music fans turned up to support the four finalists who were Decadation, Teratoria, South and Kerbstomp. According to the judges, all four bands raised the bar in terms of their performances, making it an extremely difficult decision.
Judges Andrew McGuinness, Ken McGuire, Ross Costigan and Alan Dawson left the venue to make their decision while Mike Got Spiked entertained the audience. Due to the fact that each band scored points in the same region, judges spent an hour discussing and debating until a final decision was reached.
As winning band, South walk away with an EP recording package from the Mill Studio in Kilkenny, a full web, PR and photography package from KilkennyMusic.com and Ross Costigan Photography.
Four-piece metalers Kerbstomp walk away with a recording package from Broderick's Music Warehouse. The bands performed using a top of the range backline provided by Essaness Music.
"This was genuinely one of the toughest competitions to judge in recent years, or at least as long as we've been involved anyway (the last three years ). We had the four best bands in the final in the form of South, Kerbstomp, Decadation (last year's finalists ) and Teratoria (last year's semi-finalists ) but none of us could have anticipated how close a decision it was in the end," said Ken McGuire.
"Credit to the four finalists today, each of them upped their game in a big way from their respective heats, each band realising the prizes at stake. As organiser Andrew McGuinness said before announcing the winners "when you enter a competition you have to be prepared to be disappointed" as was the case with those who couldn't take home the prizes today," said Ross Costigan.
"It was a great year and all the bands put on powerful shows. It was a tough decision but we are happy with our choices and all the bands did very well to make it to the final. I would like to thank all the bands for entering, all the sponsors and everybody who turned up to support local music," said Andrew McGuinness.
Judges are happy to talk to bands that were involved in the competition to provide feedback and advice and they hope to see each band back in the competition next year with 2009 set to see a further increase in bands, sponsors and prizes.
Now that the contest is over Hype is set to launch the new season of Underground gigs in The Zoo Club that will commence on October 12 with Chemical Addiction, Sticky Digit and South.
