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Nozstock calling

Could your band be the next Coldplay? Reckon you could put the Ox in Fleet Foxes? The Rad (-Cam) in Radiohead? If so, boutique Herefordshire festival Nozstock is launching a competition, PlayNoz, which will be music to your band’s collective ears.

The Nozstock team is offering a student band or artist the chance to play a slot at the festival which sees The Futureheads and The Proclaimers headline from 27th-29th July. It may not quite be Glasto, but based around a ramshackle Tudor farmhouse and converted cowsheds in the Herefordshire Hidden Valley, Nozstock is at the forefront of the kooky, home-spun tribe of festivals proudly scorning any corporate ethos and aiming to stay rooted to its ad hoc origins as a family and friends based affair. Now in its 14th year, it has previously seen acts as diverse as the Buzzcocks, the Joy Formidable, Sub Focus and Pulled Apart by Horses.

To be with a chance of winning, entrants must submit their best track (covers are not allowed) via the Nozstock SoundCloud DropBox by midnight 1st July 2012. Voting will be open midday Friday 6th July until midnight Sunday 15th July by way of Soundcloud ‘favourites’ and ‘likes’ (so basically beg, bribe or otherwise coerce your friends into voting). The Nozstock team will pick one of the most liked tracks from among the Soundcloud submissions to perform at the festival.

On a wider level, in a polarised music industry which has seen cuts in subsidies to independent music labels occur alongside the omnipresent spectacle of the X Factor, it seems low-level festival participation schemes such as this present a useful opportunity for struggling and unsigned bands to break through into the festival circuit. So if you fancy joining the scores of bands who hit the big time after forming in their university days (R.E.M, Coldplay, MGMT amongst other musical heavyweights) PlayNoz could well signify your lucky break. And if all else, it would probably beat the average lacklustre college JCR open-mic night…

More details on how to enter can be found on the competition entry page here http://bit.ly/McqjZ5.

 

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