Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Live and Unsigned Judges comments
The Layers get through to third round of LIVE AND UNSIGNED 2010!
Chillin’ in our Dressing Room (did I mention we got a DRESSING ROOM?!)
Rob’s Fun Bus plus two cars made up the Layers’ convoy. We sang and danced our way to Hayes, Middlesex and were early for registration. We got to see the stage, complete with cups of tea (we may play funk, but we’re still rock and roll!) and check out some of the acts as they did their sound checks. We were expecting loads of Indie bands, but were pleasantly surprised to see a huge range of styles, including one boy who had his own backing dancers! I don’t care what you say, Anna, the boy had guts!
Our sound check was over in a matter of seconds. We had HOURS to kill, so we headed for the delights of Uxbridge. Our very own Layers Day Out! Toby and Tom discussed Kant over Nandos, and having seen a lot…… (perhaps all?) that Uxbridge had to offer, we headed back. To wait some more.
There were 3 shows on the same day, and luckily we were able to sneak in to see the first show. SUCH a mixed bag! There was some real talent, some … surprises and a lot of variety. There was even a girl dressed as a cloud. Or a mushroom, we weren’t really sure.
Finally we had our briefing. Which was indeed brief. And then – darling – we were taken to our DRESSING ROOMS. Sure, we had to share it with three other bands but we felt FABULOUS.
In our black, white and red, we were trying to calm nerves but still keep up the energy. We could hear the other bands playing, and we did an ‘acapella’ (aha!) version of our song just to check we could still remember it!
The MC introduced us while we got ourselves sorted, and then we were off…. Our piece was two verses and a chorus of our song, Mr Sleaze, which linked straight into Franz Ferdinand’s No You Girls. We couldn’t see the audience, and could only just make out the judges, but when we finished our friends did us proud, hollering to let us know they were there.
Thankfully we were second to last to play, so there wasn’t long to wait for the results. All the acts had to wait in the wings to hear who had got through to the next round.
We were pretty hopeful up until the seventh band was announced, when we all agreed it had been a ‘great experience’ and we had a learned a lot from it. Preparing ourselves for disappointment, we tried quite abysmally to look cheerful and totally not bothered about not making the cut.
The MC on the stage was thanking all the audience for coming, and giving information on the competition, on websites, and more things we were not really listening to. And then……
"The final act, going through to the Area Finals of Live and Unsigned, 2010 is……..
THE LAYERS!!!!!"
It was a movie moment. In those few seconds (felt like hours; it was all slow motion) we each lost ALL dignity as we whooped and jumped and ran on stage to join the other finalists. James completely outdid himself, and ran down the line of other acts, high-fiving each and every one of them before coming back to join us.
The next round is the Area Finals, and takes place on May 2nd. The preparation begins!