The National Student Music Awards are back! Yep, the 2005 NSMA's kick off tonight at ULU with a special launch party featuring
Skinny Sumo, the winners of the 2001 awards. Then, throughout
Feb and Mar, heats will take place involving the 30 bands picked from the hundreds of demos send in by college bands over the last three months - each of the heats will be followed by a headline set from Chikinki. Winners of each heat will them go through to semi-finals, before a full final on 11 May. Tonight's party is by invite only - for info drop an email to [email protected]
Tonight's party also sees the official launch of NSMA's collaboration with SUBtv, the college TV network beamed into students' union bars across the country. Each of the finalists will be filming a SUBsession for SUBtv which will be premiered tonight, before being screening in colleges around the country. Press enquiries on the SUBsessions to SUBtv on 020 7881 2536.
Talking of battle of the bands contests, the winners of the unsigned band competition run by independent music retailer Fopp last year will play at a special bash in Bristol on 3 Feb - more on that tomorrow.