So Called Studios are teaming up with The Castle and Falcon for the semi finals of their famous Battle of the Bands competition.

After the success of last year, the rehearsal rooms and recording studio in Acocks Green, Birmingham, is hosting its biggest ever Battle of the Bands with a bigger venue and even bigger prizes for the winning act.

The battle sees three days of local alternative and rock outfits battle head to head to reach the final at The O2 Academy, Birmingham. A special battle on July 21st will let gig goers decide who out of the five bands selected by promoters and studio staff should open the night of the finals on August 4th.

Each ticket purchased will give you a chance to back your favourite act, as a voting slip will be given to score the bands alongside special guest judges.

The winner of Battle of the Bands will receive prizes worth thousands of pounds, including a headline slot at the Solihull Summer Festival.

Dates and performances for Battle of the Bands are:

Friday 13th

Fighting in Someone’s House V Kanvas V Time of the Mouth

Sunday 15th July

Giant and the Georges V Marstone V Lauren Marie

Saturday 21st July

Maxwell Avenue V Dirty Barons V Culdesac V Martha’s Needle V Prometheus

Sunday 22nd July

Rebel’s Kiss V Sketch V Three Knuckle Shuffle

Tickets for semi final rounds on 13th, 15th and 22nd July can be purchased here. The round on July 21st pay on the door only.

Alex Noble from BBC Introducing West Midlands caught up with head of Birmingham Promoters, Carlo Solazzo, on Saturday’s BBC WM’s radio show. Birmingham Promoters are the brains behind many legendary gigs here such as the sold out Mahalia, the enigmatically twisted The Urban Voodoo Machine, Dork cover stars Let’s Eat Grandma and more recently L.A dwellers Deap Vally, ex Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flur and London alt pop star Girli.

Listen to the interview here.

As well as letting listeners in on the history of The Castle and Falcon and the future gigs we have coming soon, Carlo gave valuable advice to new artists looking to break through: “Spend some time researching other local acts, who do you sound like and would work well on a bill? You’ll want to share the bill with an artist who will have a similar fanbase so you can grow together. Also, have a good demo with three, four, five good tracks under your belt mixed and mastered and you want to be playing every couple of months so you can give something new to the crowd each time.”

If you didn’t have chance to catch the interview live, you can check it out on iPlayer here until July 30th. Skip to 48 minutes in to hear the interview.

Like the sound of some of the gigs we have coming up? Hook yourself up with a ticket from the Seetickets website.

The Castle & Falcon

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Coming soon: Semi Finals of Birmingham’s Battle of the Bands

Listen to BBC Introducing Interview all about The Castle and Falcon