Personalities from the local professional services’ community in and around Southampton get ready to rock this Wednesday evening (November 13) in the annual Battle of the Bands fundraiser.
Featuring five bands, the stage-strutting event in the city is raising money for four regional charities – the Rainbow Centre, The Rowans Hospice, Wessex Cancer and Naomi House hospice.
Competing for the title of Solent Rocks! Best Band 2013 are Hughe Fighters (commercial property consultancy Hughes Ellard), host and last year’s winner Eclectic Zoo (legal firm Blake Lapthorn), No Accounting For Taste (accountancies James Cowper and BDO), Five Bar (barristers 3PB) and Contraband (chartered surveyors Primmer Olds).
Last year a 350-strong audience cheered the bands on from the dance floor and balconies at the same venue, The Brook live music venue at 466 Portswood Road, Portswood.
A panel of judges will make X Factor-style comments, following the performance of each act, to rowdy applause.
Russell Mogridge, a director at Hughes Ellard said: “We’re looking forward to this great gig, where we will belt out seven terrific songs in 20 dazzling minutes.
“We’ll be playing hard-and-fast hits from Blondie, Buzzcocks, Ramones, Coldplay and, to ring in the changes with pace, Natalie Imbruglia.
“Some wags have suggested we should pay them to wear earmuffs at the gig, but I’m reassuring everyone that we don’t anticipate any noise nuisance complaints this time around.”
On vocals for Hughes Fighters is Mary ‘Scary’ Pearson (Southampton office secretary), Joe ‘Fingers’ Walker (retail) on lead guitar, Carl ‘It’s All About Me’ Walker (professional services) on rhythm guitar, Tim ‘Slapping the Bass’ Clark (retail agency) on bass and, upping the tempo on drums, Russell ‘Animal’ Mogridge (office and industrial agency).
Tickets, £12 in advance, are available – please contact [email protected] or ring 023 8022 4080.
