Sennheiser’s John Steven described the initiative: "This is a means of establishing closer contact with potential up and coming performing artists. It’s also a way of genuinely trying to help bands and artists who don’t fall into the category of ‘manufactured pop idol’ currently so favoured by the major recording industry."
Winners of heats covering pop, rock, dance, hip-hop, R&B and jazz musical categories from across the country performed live in front of the panel of judges drawn from artists, producers, promoters and press. The overall winner was hip-hop artist Contrast, a.k.a. Clive Daniel, unanimously deemed to far exceed the standards of performance achieved by many artists signed to major recording contracts. He now looks forward to a recording session with producer Mike Hedges (U2, Texas, Travis and the Manic Street Preachers among many others) in his newly fitted out Wessex Studios complex. In addition to this he also collected £5000 in cash and equipment from Sennheiser, Gibson, Orange, Mindprint and TASCAM on the night.
Commenting on the success of the competition, Steven confirmed that it was set to become an annual fixture in the Sennheiser event calendar with the final becoming an integral part of Sennheiser’s PLASA exhibition activities, with the 2002 final to be held at Planet Hollywood in September. Sennheiser currently supports one of the largest artist endorsement schemes of any pro audio company, including established artists such as Jamiroquai, Toploader and Faithless, as well as new bands and artists like Starsailor, Turin Brakes, Elbow, Cosmic Rough Riders and Tippi.
(Ruth Rossington)
