Jack FM searching for Oxfordshire’s ‘next big thing’

Posted on by simonminter

Local radio station Jack FM have launched a search for Oxfordshire’s finest unsigned musical talent. The winner of the ‘Next Big Thing’ competition will win a spot at the Wychwood Festival and a recording session worth £2,000, while 20 finalists will each record one track for free at SAE Oxford. These 20 acts will be cut down to five, who will perform a show at the O2 Academy in April, after which a panel of judges will select an overall winner.

Local unsigned acts of any genre can enter by posting demos to the station or submitting an entry online here.

  • http://www.myspace.com/thescholarsuk Tim

    Ace! Have entered!

    Regards,
    Tim
    {The Scholars}

  • TheWrongWay

    This just in :)

    1. Tripwires
    2. Moon
    3. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
    4. Beck Lanehart
    5. Coco and Sparks
    6. International Jetsetters
    7. Foxy
    8. Hangman Charlie
    9. Quadraphobe
    10. Walter Pico
    11. Secret Rivals
    12. From Light To Sound
    13. Motion In Colour
    14. Spiral 25
    15. The Scholars
    16. InLight
    17. Liddington
    18. The Medicin
    19. Templars
    20. Vixens

  • http://www.myspace.com/templars Jamie Townsend

    Just for info, my band’s (Templars) mix for the top 20 was a disaster – the lead vocal layer was about 2 beats behind throughout the whole song. The band – who recorded their track on the last Monday – didn’t get to hear the finished track before the judging (not for want of having been promised it at the recording evening or for asking for it) and then spent 10 days trying to communicate with SAE (being very unhelpful) and Jack FM (generally trying to be helpful) either to get them to re-mix the track correctly or let the band have the logic files so that they could re-mix it themselves….This was not an individual or subjective aesthetic judgement as to the quality of the production – merely dismay at a technical mistake/accident during the mixing of the track. After varied excuses from SAE as to why they couldn’t let the band have their track, finally SAE said they would never release the files to any of the bands as per the Terms & Conditions of the competition. We were embarrassed enough already by the noise that was being played as our track online and decided to ask Jack FM to take the track off the website. So, although obviously extremely pleased to be in the top 20, and also not in anyway saying it would have made a difference to the final 5, it has been a disappointing and depressing experience, and a major timewaster!

    -Jamie

  • colinmackinnon

    Um- for the sake of those of us at work with Webmarshalls, filters etc. Can we tone down the language a little, folks? I don’t want people being blocked from accessing this site because of excessive use of um, ‘cusswords’. I feel awful asking this, cos everyone that knows me knows that I swear like a stevedore, but it would be a shame if potential contributors/ readers were to be alienated by industrial language.

    Remember: the asterisk is your friend!
    Col

  • http://www.myspace.com/thescholars Tim

    Jamie, I missed your comment previously but have to say ours wasn’t a far cry from yours. In short, it sounded horrendous. While we are appreciative to have made the top 20, the mixing process was shambolic – maybe it might have been an idea not to have had done the recording less than 3 weeks before the live final so the bands could have had some decent session time? In my view, the actual recording is only a tiny part of the process with mixing amd mastering being the real order of business which in SAE’s case was woeful.

  • http://www.last.fm/music/spiral+25 Joe

    Just remember – Jack FM Next Big Thing.

    I think people might be being a little harsh on SAE. Put yourself in SAE’s shoes, all those bands in a short space of time. Think yourselves lucky if you got the full 3 hours.

  • http://www.last.fm/music/spiral+25 Joe

    Just to add: SAE told us that once the recordings were sent to Jack FM it was none of their responsibility, which I think is fair enough.

  • http://www.myspace.com/templars Jamie

    Tim: Hmm, I wonder if you might have had the same sound guy as us? I think we felt that this guy was particularly difficult and rude to us while we were in the studio, as well as uncooperative afterwards, and I know a member of one of the other bands who had a similar experience with the same person.

    Joe: Yes I think I agree to an extent, in our case we wanted JackFM to take control of the situation and work with us to solve the problem with our track. When I first called the promoter at JackFM he seemed confident he would be able to sort it, but then a few days later I spoke to him again and he said SAE were unprepared to fix the track, because of competition rules. This seemed slightly bizarre, firstly as the final 5 had already been selected by this stage, so it wasn’t about winning or losing, and as I thought that Jack were the ones in charge of the competition, not SAE. Overall I think SAE and Jack are both to blame for what happened with my band.

  • Chris McCartney

    No disrespect meant to Witches, they are a great band and I think they should have been picked for the top 20 in the first place but how come no one has questioned them even being in the final 5 bands? Did Witches enter the competition at the beginning? If they didn’t then they should not have been in the top 5. If they did then that must surely mean that all the other bands that were picked for the top 20 were considered to be better than Witches? If this is the case then Jack FM should not have replaced any bands that dropped out with bands on a reserve list because by doing so they placed bands that were previously considered substandard for the top 20 over bands that had been legitimately made it into the competition. Essentially, Witches weren’t even in the competition yet they won it. This makes a complete farce out of the competition and could possibly put bands off from entering such a competition in the future.

    Who wants to have their talents crammed into a couple of hours of recording at short notice only to lose out a band that wasn’t even in the competition in the first place?

    Quadraphobe: Why does a band with a song called Super Badger apparently take themselves far too seriously when confronted with themselves gurning etc and what does it say about Jack FM if they think that a band such as Quadraphobe is more likley to be the next big thing above all those other very good Oxford bands? Fair play, Quadraphobe have talent, they aren’t awful but they aren’t that good either and they certainly don’t have their finger on the pulse. Perhaps Jack FM people were looking for the next Bob The Builder or Mr. Blobby style act?

  • Phill

    The witches one is simple. They weren’t in the original top 20 but someone dropped out and they got called up. The top 20 were judged on demos and myspaces. All the bands did their recordings and the final 5 were picked from that – so obviously witches impressed more at this stage. And if you listen to all the SAE recordings of the top 20 – it shows.

    It seems they judged it at three 3 stages – “rough” demo, “professional” demo and live gig, with witches impressing the panel more each time.

  • Chris McCartney

    “They weren’t in the original top 20 but someone dropped out and they got called up”

    Witches got called up but every other band was required to provide a demo.

    When did Witches enter the competition?

  • Chris McCartney

    Apologies. Having re-read the terms and conditions it is clear that Jack FM reserve the right to do what they like including changes to entry dates. Argument over! :)

  • Martin – Witches

    Chris

    Just to clear things up.

    Witches entered the competition at the same time and in the same way as everyone else – we weren’t brought in at the last minute by JackFM.

    We didn’t make the final 20 based on our demo submission – but 4 of the original bands pulled out and were replaced – since Jack FM wanted a full 20 bands to record sessions at SAE – Witches were one of the replacement bands (I think this is what Phill means when he says we were called up).

  • Chris McCartney

    Thankyou for clearing that up Martin,

    That’s very fortunate that Jack FM had you in mind when the bands dropped out, or was there actually a reserve list which wasn’t published?

    It all just seems a little odd way of doing things, what if all 4 of the replacement bands (who were presumably not good enough to make the top 20) had been in the final 5? I wonder how that would make the other top 20 entrants who had been picked from the beginning (over the 4 replacement bands which weren’t considered as good) feel? Perhaps it’s fair but for some reason it doesn’t seem quite right. There seem to be many things about this competition which could have been organised better and it’s a shame that SAE have got some stick for it when really I think it’s Jack FM’s competition and they should take responsibility for it.

  • Chris McCartney

    It also appears that there is nothing in the terms and conditions of the competition regarding how they would deal with bands dropping out (or being disqualified). It states that they can change dates and judges but not bands.