This is the first of three articles on the
Battle for Woodstock 2006 – a bit like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but longer,
and without the hobbits or the writing ability…Alexander the Great loved
battles, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan were big, big fans. Even George Bush enjoys a good one when he’s not busy choking on pretzels and molesting the free world. And after the 22nd of July 2006 at Tempos in Randburg I became a huge fan of battles too.Okay, so maybe the battles that those esteemed gentlemen fought (or in Bush’s case, watched on CNN) differ slightly from this one in that no-one actually died at Round 4 of this year’s
Battle for Woodstock regional competition - although the dumpy middle-age dude who got flung WWE-style into the stage stairs during a mosh may have sustained a couple of nasty bruises (I stayed well back – my arthritis was giving me kak and my hearing aid was feeding back from being too close to the speakers). Band battles are all about using musical abilities and passion to blow the other bands off the stage and at the Battle for Woodstock the stakes couldn’t be higher with the eventual winner going on to play live at this year’s Woodstock festival as well as other prizes like radio airplay, musical kudos and tons of boobie-signings.If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, Battle for Woodstock works this way: Five bands, original tunes - each given half an hour to show off their wares and wow the judges. Winners in each regional round move on to the semis. Winners at semis move on to finals with the last band standing getting the dream Woodstock gig and their shot at glory. Running order of bands is determined by how many band flyers their fans hand in at the door (a paltry thirty bucks entrance if you bring your favourite band’s flyer). The more people you can guilt, bribe and bully into coming, the later you go on. Got it? Cool.Go to: http://www.5fm.co.za/blogJockeys/blogs.aspx?alias=Derek_Lynch&month=8&year=2006to read further...