Bands rock up to vie for top spot

Report by  Jamie Felton,  Guitar and drum teacher

What a tremendous success The Bicester School’s first Battle of The Bands competition was! The level of talent and quality of music was mightily high.  

Kicking off was Thrasher, made up of Caleb Thompson (guitar), Blake Lippert (bass) and Joe McKeon (drums) covering Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in fine fashion – rock was very much served with thrashing guitar riffs form Caleb, heavy drums from Joe and a solid bass anchor from Blake. 

Blake remained on stage for our second act doing a solo bass cover of Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder – his finger movement was impeccable, delivering a very funky and upbeat performance. 

Third up were Vanessa Adhikari (violin), Tom Blakey (guitar), Jake Brown (bass) and Ewan Biggs (drums) covering the classic, Hey Jude by The Beatles. This performance flowed very well; Tom and Jake provided a fine accompaniment for Vanessa to play the vocal melody over.

And then came our winners, The Oscillations, made up of Grace Bishop (vocals), Lewis Smith (guitar), Matthew Piesse (guitar), Alfie Pates (guitar), Edward Leman (bass), James Kingsley (drums) performing their original track, Girl In The Street. Wow such a professional performance with high energy, great instrumentalism and the fact that it was their own material gave them the edge in taking the contest. 

Next up was Erlgean Mensah demonstrating a masterclass in drumming, playing along with Rather Be by Jess Glynne. Intricate rhythms and driving grooves were the main features of this hugely impressive cover.

Lastly, we had Ollie Paddock (guitar), Edward Leman (bass) and Helana Norton (drums) covering Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N Roses. The band gelled well and provided a great accompaniment to this rock standard.