What a night!

The ITVLocal article
http://info.itvlocal.com/np.shtml

The press pictures
http://gallery.me.com/elliottfranks#...

The ITV film of the event
http://www.itvlocal.com/london/whats...

The films on Youtube
http://uk.youtube.com/getconnectedorguk

It being a Friday, I thought I’d have a relaxing day and spend a bit of time giving some attention to the music submissions we’ve had so far.

What can I say? The standard is terrific.

Our most recent submission was from Ananda Shaburova, which seems a good place to start. The words aren’t in English (or at least I can’t decipher them) but Step Of Love is a wonderful example of synth-pop. I really like the cymbal crashes before the vocals start.

Emily Teague has submitted two songs and I love them both. Make Things Right is just beautiful - spare acoustic guitar that leaves the focus on Emily’s stunning voice. The equally gorgeous Yours Faithfully sounds a little more polished, but I think I prefer the slightly grittier recording of Make Things Right.

We’ve also had a couple of serial entrants, which is cool to see. Adam Wedd has submitted six different tracks. The bass-heavy Troubled Times with its thumping drums stands out, as does the beautiful, melancholic Nursery Rhymes. My favourite, I think, is Call On A Friend – all hypnotic guitar plucking and hushed vocals.

Anthony Voelcker is the other serial entrant. Temptation Strings is my favourite of his submissions. Anthony’s voice reminds me of Elliott Smith, which is certainly no bad thing.

Luke by James B (not me, I hasten to add) sounds like Orbital; it’s an excellent piece of electronica.

As for the other entries, igotlife has uploaded Johnny Cash’s A Boy Named Sue (incidentally one of my karaoke favourites) but I think we’re going to have to disqualify that one, and Spikey T’s Gunshot Dub has also been uploaded, but since I own a copy of that on 12”, I think we might have to disqualify it too.

If you’ve already made a submission, don’t forget to get your friends to vote for you. And, if you haven’t uploaded anything yet, you’ve got until 5th September.

I’ll be having a look at the videos and scripts next week.

Have a great weekend everyone.

James

We're really pleased to announce that the competition is now live!

We're pretty sure we've tested everything really thoroughly and we're able to upload music, video and scripts without any problems, but if you do encounter any trouble don't hesitate to drop us a line by email.

Remember, even if you don't have any experience of film-making and simply want to share your thoughts about one of the issues we definitely want to hear from you.

Looking forward to seeing all your submissions!