The AYRPLAY Quarter Finals featuring the best of Scotland’s unsigned bands kicks off again this week (Tuesday 3rd March 2009) with five bands set to rock the crowds at the Eagle Tavern, Prestwick.
Thirty-five bands will perform over several weeks in the quarter finals and Tuesday night will see a further five bands Newo Ikkin, Jumping Flash, The Lewds, The Zonules of Zinn and the Joe Elms Band battle against each other for the votes to make it through to the Semi-Finals. (Go to www.ayrplay.co.uk for more details).
So far, Glasgow’s, The Laura Healy band, Ayrshire band, Long Way Home and Dundee Band, The Core have won through to the Semi’s. Winners of last week’s competition, ‘The Core’ band blew the judges away with their heavy rock energy on stage. The four piece band is made up of Murphy on Guitar/Vocals, Gavin Robertson on Drums/Percussion and Robi Islam on Bass. Robi said “We had a great time on stage and we’re looking forward to performing in the AYRPLAY semi finals”.
Held in conjunction with the Burns Festival, just 16 bands will go through to perform in the semi-finals on a text to win and judges vote until just 6 bands battle it out in the Final with the winning band getting the chance to open the stage at ‘Burns Rock at the Racecourse’, Ayr Racecourse on Saturday 23rd May.
With the AYRPLAY competition now in its second year, Producer and the originator of AYRPLAY, Liz Hobbs MBE, said “The competition is fierce and online support from fans of bands has been fantastic. We’ve now extended the text vote deadline to Thursday 26th March in order to give bands and their fans the maximum opportunity to win through to the Semi Finals”.
Text votes for the Semi Finals will start on Tuesday 31st March. Go to www.ayrplay.co.uk for details.
Backed by The Burns Festival funding partners, Scottish Enterprise, South Ayrshire Council, EventScotland and VisitScotland, Burns Festival Director, Michael McDaid said “We are excited by the success of the AYRPLAY competition. It’s a credit to the talent of Scotland’s musicians who have entered AYRPLAY and it is an important part of the festival”.
