The Surface Festival

The Surface Festival Welsh Final – Sat 7th July 2012 – CF10 Cardiff Student Union It’s been a busy week for The Shoots, we have booked ourselves into a recording studio to lay down our as yet untitled EP. We’ve also returned to Buffalo to play a midweek gig with some outstanding local bands. Now our attention focuses on Surface. It’s a just over a week until The Shoots take to the stage at CF10, Cardiff Universities showpiece Live Music Venue, to compete in The Welsh Final of The Surface Festival. The Surface Festival is a European Wide Battle of the bands where 20 cities host the various stages of the competition and out of thousands of bands 23 make it to the showpiece finale in the 02 Arena London. Thousands of entries have been received for the 2012 incarnation of Europe’s largest musical battle royal. Progression through each of the 5 stages of the competition depends on three voting totals made up of text, audience and judges; with the early stages also requiring band votes. Within Wales, only 8 bands remain, and one of these bands so happens to be The Shoots. I suppose the big question when we entered the competition was ‘what do we want out of it’? The answer to that question was very simple: more gigs, a chance to meet and interact with new bands, a chance to play bigger venues and more than anything else a chance to get our music heard. We didn’t know how far we would get or what to expect, but so far we have won each of the first two rounds and had an incredible time along the way. The final promises to be an outstanding opportunity exposure wise for the band, with the carrot of a gig in Brixton 02 Academy to follow where the judges will decide the line up for the 02 Final. Through the process the band have been amazed with the support received and the crowds and votes that have come in for each gig has been amazing. Whether we make it any further in the competition or not, to everyone that has and continues to support the band we just want to say a huge thank you. Progression in the competition will lead to more and more exposure for the band with media interest already starting to come through. Win lose or draw, the future is looking bright for The Shoots. If you want to support the band progress through The Surface Festival then please contact them on theshoots@ymail.com for details!

Introducing The Shoots

When the idea of starting a brand new original rock band crossed our minds I took some advice and spoke to a few people wearing their 'been there done that' T-shirts. We were given two pieces of advice: 1. Keep going no matter what happens and in the rough times remember why you started 2. To get anything meaningful together its going to take years Well both pieces of advice have been invaluable and as we round our 2nd year together off the calender we can look forward to so much. We have a shot at playing at the 02 Arena, up coming magazine interviews, our best songs are finally coming together and the profile of the band is rising rapidly. So this is the first blog of a band called The Shoots and our efforts to create something meaningful and worthwhile, to do something real and make real music. Who knows people may actually like it, they may even love it! It has been two years to get to where we are. which we firmly beleive is an excellent original rock band. We have honed our craft and live set playing every venue that would have us. Recorded, travelled and rehearsed on a shoe string budget. We have finally found the lead guitarist we have been looking for to add the finishing touch to our sound. To any new musician/Singers out there looking to start a musical project or band we would give the following advice: 1. Keep going no matter what happens and in the rough times remember why you started 2. To get anything meaningful together its going to take years If you want to be a part of our journey then please follow us, our blog, our music. The Shoots (Twitter - @the_shoots) (Web www.reverbnation.com/shoots)