News about the Original Bands Showcase 2011

New page: OBS Unplugged 2012 for singers and acoustic artists

1st November 2011

OBS 2012, writes Val McCoy:

The Original Bands Showcase is set up for unsigned Bands and Artists of all genres. This Independent Music Event that takes place annually in Leicester. The first OBS was back in 2004 Its main aim is to give a platform for local live bands and an opportunity to increase exposure and fanbase under the umbrella of a series of organised well supported nights of live music

It has now become an established credible event on the Live Music Calender Working closely with local businesses and Live Music Venues it offers a nice package of prizes for the Finalists which include slots at Summer Sundae Weekender which has previously been voted the best small festival in the UK

Against the somewhat murky reputation of Battles of the Bands this showcase has gained a reputation that sets it apart and actually delivers what it promises

The search begins soon for OBS 2012 which will involve 35+ Midland Bands 3 of whom will, once again, play Summer Sundae Weekender on The Musician Stage.

ALL THIS YEARS SHOWS WILL BE STAGED AT THE MUSICIAN, LEICESTER'S FINEST INDEPENDENT MUSIC VENUE Bands for future consideratiom, join the group and email vjtpromos@hotmail.com with band these details

Short Bio
website link
contact number

If you like to go to live music nights but are disillusioned with hit and miss line ups and lack of organisation, you need to be OBS'd Add yourself to the Facebook Group and get all the news as well as the chance to tell us who you think should be involved next year. Looking for bands from the Midlands area only.

OBS 2012 on Facebook

21st May

And the winner is ... The Jack Kenworthy Trio

with Rassoodocks coming second. A third place is to be announced soon.

Our full report on the grand final and on all the heats will be published soon.

The two winning bands will perform at the Summer Sundae festival.

See our coverage of the OBS Grand Finals

19th May

Line up for Grand Final proves to be an epic night for live music

Five bands will compete for places at the Summer Sundae festival and the honour of joining the roll call of bands that have won this prestigious festival. The five bands taking part will be

Formal Warning
The Limelight
Silent Resistance
The Rassoodocks
Jack Kenworthy Trio

with a guest appearance from last year's winners, The James Lewis Bands. The order in which the bands play will be decided by lot on the night.

An article appeared in todays Leicester Mercury, giving comments from musicians taking part and photos of some of the bands.

Tickets are expected to sell out fast when the doors open at 7.30 p.m. at the Yeoman Street venue. As in previous years it is possible that queues will form as anxious fans wait to be let in once the venue reaches it capacity.

The quality of the line-up means that it could be some time before the panel of judges reaches a decision about which band wins the top prize. Artsin will Tweet the news as soon as we heard the result.

9th April

Jack Kenworthy goes through

Leicester singer and songwriter, the highly talented Jack Kenworthy was selected from tonight's OBS heat at the Musician. jack will play the semi final on Friday 6th May at The Musician. The Lineup for the callbacks will be finalised shortly and will be played on Saturday 23rd Apr at the The Musician.

3rd April

At heat 6 fo the OBS semi finalists are Silent Resistance who will play on Saturday 30th April at The Musician.

26th March

Panda Youth was selected today to go through at the fifth heat. They will be playing again on the 6th May.

13th March

OBS underway with some really good bands on the line up

The Original Bands Showcase is well underway with four heats having taken place at either the Musician or the Shed.

Heat 1 on 26th February saw four Leicester bands take to the stage of the Musician. Ferris winning the heat. This five piece acoustic band gave us a sterling set of rock songs. We wrote about them when they played at the OBS Unplugged on 6th January. Led by Scott Grocock's fine vocals, the band delivered a fulsome set of really engaging songs, some of which you can hear on their Myspace page.

Lonesome Party Heroes, a four piece electric band, worked well together to give the ample crowd a set of ear-pleasing ballads. The Jolly Roger was hoisted when pirate band Luskan Rum Line came on stage with their set of sea shanties, growled out by vocalist George San (Leicester's answer to Jonny Depp.) The audience had a good time with this. Four piece band With Winters offered a varied set of vibrant songs. The evening was brought to a close by Furrowed Fox who got the audience dancing to their lively songs. A band with a distinctive style and character all of its own, they rounded off a really good evening.

Dates of OBS heats and shows are listed on our gig dates page

OBS Unplugged (acoustics showcase) on Facebook

Other pages you might like

Festival reports 2011