The Flapper wasn’t the easiest venue to get to even with my driver that apparently “knows Birmingham like the back of his hand”.  So I was a little late in catching the first song played at this particular night’s heat of the Midlands’ Surface Unsigned Festival but early enough to catch the drama that transpired later in the series of performances.

The Surface Unsigned Festival is really a massive battle of the bands where every group competing has a 20 minute set to win the hearts and minds of fans attending the performance, text votes and the nod from an industry professional on the night.
 
There are South, North, West and Midlands versions that will culminate in a massive concert at London’s O2 in August. 

According to Leon Van Den Brocke, the organiser of the Midlands region events, each 2010 band has been vetted personally with the hope that he can repeat his successes from last year where a Midlands band that played in the 2009 contest secured a deal with Sony.  Apparently, there is also an unseen competition between each of the regional organisers of Surface Unsigned to get their acts to the final in London.

The Maffa Kings

First up was a Derby rock act called The Maffa Kings.  When I entered the venue, they were well into their second song called Lust to Licks - a sexy rock song with twinkling chimes and guitar solos that builds with intensity as the song comes to an end.  The band was less than animated on stage with most of the vibe coming from its front man, Lee Moran who reminded me of a Morrison/Astbury type.

They followed up with a new song and if memory serves me right was called Flat Line Beat which was dominated with the heartbeat thump of the bass drum highlighted with the scraping of a Mexican guiro.

The Maffa Kings concluded with a Marley-inspired, reggae tune called The Volunteer.  Moran said that this song is about an IRA member that “fights for freedom and fights against your queen” - but he also tacked on a disclaimer that this is about as political as they get.

Sence

Next up was a trio that hails from Birmingham called Sence.  They had a certain Kinks feel to their music which was predominantly down to the lead singer Dave Goss’ vocals.  The first song was Same Mistake - a happy go lucky song that started with an animalistic drum intro and staccato bridge. 

Sence chose another Kinks-inspired song titled Elle as its third offering... relying on simplistic “I met this girl” lyrics, guitar effects and a Gallagher-esque vocal twang.
 
They ended with Soldier in Disguise - They Might Be Giants vocals with a Jessie’s Girl intro overlaid with urban warrior taking on the frustrations of daily life prose.

Captain Horizon

And the award for most animated on stage goes to the Black Country’s Battle of the Bands winners, Captain Horizon, which was dripping with Rainbow and post-grunge influences.  “A” for effort in warming up the crowd and they didn’t do half bad on the songs either.

Vocalist, Steven Whittington had a crazed look on his face for most of the songs that ranged from up-tempo, screaming rock to melancholy ballads like its third song, Tears from the Eye.  The transitions within the songs were sometimes clunky but that’s me being nitpicky. Those blemishes can definitely be overlooked by concentrating more on the range of vocals from Whittington that reminded me of another post-grunge band that is dominating charts in the UK and US called Shinedown.

The Dave Vegas Project

Representing Northampton on the night was The Dave Vegas Project.  I’ve been privy to this duo a couple of times when doing the rounds in my local area but this time they have added a third member on bass.
 
First song was its newest track Mosquito Girl.  Just imagine the raunchiest rock with blues undertones and a raspy vocal and you’ve got these guys sussed.  A false start on the second song but they nailed it in the end.

It was a bad choice for its third song.  They slowed it down for Another World but judging from the mumblings behind me in the crowd, it didn’t please.  This wasn’t helped by the newbie bassist getting the finger positions wrong and producing a nerve shattering, off key melody.

The fourth song, Cure a Whore, saw the return of front man Chris Watkins’ crunchy guitar.  Whilst not a strong song, it combined a garage rock meets Rage Against the Machine theme.

Glass Onion

Here’s where the drama took place.  You know that saying that the show must go on?  Well, the concept seems to have been lost on this Leicester group, Glass Onion.  As they settled in to their allotted set of ska, Northern soul songs, technical difficulties struck and the drummer’s mic didn’t work.  It was obvious that the band was distressed as event staff tried on multiple occasions to rectify the issue but the song ended up being an instrumental only. 

The band finished one more song but then the front man, Jacob, decided to finish the set.  A public disagreement ensued with declarations from the drummer, Sean saying “we can do one more song, it’s not our fault” etc...but the front man was having none of it, took his guitar off his shoulder and signalled the end.