Godiva Unsigned - Post your reviews/comments here

Your highlights, lowlights, congratulations, commiserations, compliments and complaints........

Let's have it all here!!

Firstly, congratulations to EVERYONE who played - your talent has once again been a credit to you and Cov & Warks.

highlights - qualifying
lowlights - queuing at the bar, shunned by a lot of people
congratulations - all the bands, sound engineers
commiserations - the bands who didn't qualify, i had my favourite 4.
compliments - the judges and audience
complaints - underestimated the numbers in and should have held it in the main room with all the bars open. A lot of people missed bands cos they were trying to get a drink at the bar.

I enjoyed it immensely personally

Did anyone get any footage? Drunken Daniel?

sorry, nah

Fancy writing a review/run down of the days events? I've been out of the loop for the last few weeks.

Brief review.

EE - Opened the day in fine form, proved from the off that they were the band to beat.
The Pockets - Quality set, unlucky not to get selected.
Just Morale - Quality live band, so much energy, deserved to get selected, fuck loads of fans.
Satin Dolls - 80's inspired rock, hot singer, tight as hell, not my taste in music though.
Haunted by Humans - Didn't play very well, very lucky to get selected.
Momma's in the Kitchen - Tight bluesy rock set, possibly just didn't appeal to everyone.
Reuben's Cane - Same as The Pockets, great set unlucky not to go through to Godiva. Beglin's got a fantastic voice
Fortune Tellers - Only caught the tail end of their set but they sounded good.

would add that HBH had pretty major technical issues with a guitar during their 1st couple of songs, but professionally kept going. the last 2 tunes they nailed and showed their class.

reubens cane were my band of the day, great sound, Beglin does have a fantastic voice and i thought their soulful sound would have fitted an afternoon festival slot perfectly, but not to be, i was really disappointed for them. its a testament to them that i've been humming a couple of their tunes pretty regularly since the gig

I only caught a bit of the pockets as they were on straight after us and i was packing up, but what i heard sounded ace, I know tho Ferris was unhappy with the performance, but then who isn't after a gig like this

we had technical issues too but luckily for us it was before we started so just delayed us for a few minutes, which seemed like hours

i spent the whole of Momma's set waiting to get served at the one bar, which was 3 deep all around it. 30 odd minutes i think, which is a travesty

If i'm honest i think its a bit of a joke that Reubens Cane didnt get through we got a great reception from a room full of people, i didnt hear that many other bands get such a loud encore request.

Thats the way it goes with these things though at the end of the day we didnt bring the numbers or manipulate the way others did.

The other bands were good although one of the bands that eventually got through managed to clear most of the room in their first song...... answers on a postcard!!

You'll have to literally spell it out, Cork, as I wasn't there.

It seems the G Factor route of playing Godiva causes more controversy than the old method of straight forward selection. I understand that this is deemed to be the fairest way to operate, but Christ on a bike, how much bitching does it create?!

There are bands on the local scene that know exactly how to play the game that are succeeding over bands that shun the whole process whom deserve to be playing the mainstage in their own right (Senses, Trailer, King Hermit anyone? Although the latter two did enter, I believe)

At the end of the day, from experience, I have palyed the mainstage with both my bands, and as much of a buzz as it is, I'd rather be there as a punter.

Our first song probably cleared the room, it certainly nearly cleared the stage, it sounded like a mess of crackles and feedback.

I think Rueben's suffered from playing late in the day as although there were a number of people in the room quite a lot of us were musicians from the other bands and couldn't vote.

Also the tightness of Rich's trousers may have caused offence to some of the younger viewing public!

Sephiroth wrote:Our first song probably cleared the room, it certainly nearly cleared the stage, it sounded like a mess of crackles and feedback.

I wasnt referring to you boys mate!!

Kid Icarus wrote:You'll have to literally spell it out, Cork, as I wasn't there.

Regarding manipulation etc?

A certain 'figure' of Coventry music swanning around taking and counting voting slips while wearing a satin dolls t-shirt, advising members of the audience who were unsure of where to place there second vote (specifically Just Morale fans) to vote for Satin Dolls (not witnessed by myself but fed back from several sources including just morale fans).

Satin dolls somehow beat us to the public vote yet managed to clear half of the room in about 30 seconds and played to the smallest crowd of the day.

Ciaran. you're making sweeping statements by your post above, not all the bands tried to manipulate votes, we certainly never did.

Its funny, the Crooks were tactically voted out last year at the heats, which is why the organisers changed the voting system this year, no one else seemed to give two hoots at the time

Its a real shame that EE haven't really been able to enjoy our success cos of all the bickering post event

i will add that i do feel for Reubens Cane, like i said in my 1st post, they deserved to get through

Rig wrote:Ciaran. you're making sweeping statements by your post above, not all the bands tried to manipulate votes, we certainly never did.

Its funny, the Crooks were tactically voted out last year at the heats, which is why the organisers changed the voting system this year, no one else seemed to give two hoots at the time

Its a real shame that EE haven't really been able to enjoy our success cos of all the bickering post event

I was referring to one individual working on behalf of one band mate.
You guys and Just Morale more than deserved to get through. I have seen HBH play much better than they did and judging by Dans post they are aware of that already, Scott came up to me after and said he was certain they wouldnt get through over us but Satin Dolls going through is a new level of insult, not just to me and Reubens Cane but to Fortune Tellers, Mommas and The Pockets the poorest band of the day went through, shit happens.

yeah its cool mate, your opening post could be misconstrued to suggest all the bands manipulated the voting system

its botb's, we all know they are shit and there's always disagreements once they are finished. Music isn't about competition, or it shouldn't be anyway

lets see what they do next year

Yeah, in defence of Ciaran's comment, I think he's on about how inappropriate it is for the person collecting and counting the votes and someone who apparently supports the scene as a whole, to be so blatantly touting for votes for her employee's band - His reaction is quite understandable.

I don't for one second begrudge Satin Dolls getting through because they are on of the hardest working bands around here an deserve all the success they get. I wouldn't even say they were the worst band on the day.

If I had to choose the 4 bands to go through based on performance on the day it would be in no particular order

The Pockets
Echo Empire
Rueben's Cane
Just Morale

However, I am glad we are through because I do believe we are one of the top 4 bands that played (if I didn't think that i'm in the wrong band really) and if you base it on the supposed judging categories, not just performance, ie songwriting and musicianship etc. I think the results would have been very different.

i appreciate that John, it was the vagueness of the 1st post and as this is an open forum where anyone can browse i don't really want music folk around these parts thinking all the other bands tried to manipulate votes, would have been much better to just come out with the real issue, which i fully agree with

Rig and the EE boys, you should enjoy your victory as you deserved it and no one at all is disputing that, you were fucking fantastic and I can't wait to see you anihalate Toploader and The Twang on the Main Stage.

i think we deserved going through too!

my choice for the final 4 i knew well in advance of the final, and it would have more to do with which bands music i like and also the people in the bands i'd have liked to share the day with backstage at godiva

they would have been

EE, HBH, RC, TP

I totally agree with the comment about Satin Dolls - they are an incredible performance band and extremely hard working. I've said for a long time that they deserve a chance at Godiva and now they have it.

The thing that has to be put into perspective here is that yet again you all demonstrated that this area has some amazing talent and the winning 4 are ONLY FOUR of the great bands who could easily put on a world class show on that stage - there are many round here.

Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, I have been unable to enjoy the occasion.

Just to clarify we did enter and we were a reserve and we got a email (or call, dunno) asking to fill in for a band who might have pulled out which we immediately declined.

Why enter in the first place then? well this was before someone assosiated with the "credible" competition decided to publically slag us off and our submission despite no complaint or request to do so.

Completely unprofessional and i bet it was completely over looked, i'm not interested in dealing with people like that.

We're not talking about THAT person again are we? Good God! How many controversies can ONE person be involved in?

I was just stating our position.