The final of the "Battle of the Bands" contest to find the best young band in Essex will be held in Colchester Town Park on Saturday.

The contest is for young bands with members who live, study or work in Essex. There is a strong emphasis on originality, with extra marks being given for original material or original versions of more standard songs.

Local heats were held in Harlow, Brentwood, Basildon, Colchester, Rochford, Maldon, Chelmsford and Braintree and the bands which won through were PogoStick Drive-By, Painsbrook, Southern Dilemma, Audrey II, Malachi, White Noize, Hi Jinx and Curly Circus.

The overall winning band gets to record a CD selection of their songs and will receive advice, provided by the Musicians Union, on copyright protection, contracts, royalties, and all legal matters relating to the music business.

This prize is designed to give the band a chance of kicking themselves off into the music business.

Jeff Merrifield, County organiser of the contest said: "This should give the winning band a leg up in the right direction.

"When we have run these contests in the past, all bands have said that the taking part did them a great deal of good and that they were better bands for it."

Published Thursday May 29, 2003