St Mary’s hosted the 5^th annual Battle of the Bands on Friday 10 April. Of the 25 band entries, 12 bands performed at the final. This year, two St Mary’s bands, Nuns and Moses and Artistic Licence, made the final round. Once again, a wild card entry made up the last finalist. This was awarded to the band with the most votes on the St Mary’s Battle of the Bands Facebook page. The wild card entry went to a band from St John’s College, Fallacy.

The show opened with a dazzling light display, created by our very own Mr Barry Strydom using additional lights sponsored by Cue Lighting and Sound, which gave a taste of things to come. Each band finalist presented two songs in an exhilarating stage show. Nuns and Moses from St Mary’s had the home crowd clamouring for more with their sensational original song Lemonade and Artistic Licence presented a thought-provoking ballad called It’s Alright. Once again the standard of performance was high which made the judging process very difficult. Fortunately, a consensus was reached and, at the end of the evening, the winners were announced in various categories.

The sponsors, Turnkey, Wired Sound Studios, Cue Lighting and Sound, Downtown Studios and DWR supplied fantastic prizes in excess of R55 000. An exciting addition to the prizes is that the top three bands will be interviewed and play an acoustic set on an internet radio station called ProSound Live. They are to feature on a show called Wired Sound Live on Wednesdays from 16h00 to 18h00. A best lighting category was also introduced this year. Bands were encouraged to bring their own lighting operators for training for their set or were allocated one. Tiaan Goilomee from St John’s College won best lighting and won fantastic prizes sponsored by Cue Lighting and Sound and DWR.

Basement 8 from Randpark High took top honours with Greedy Jess from Swallow Music School in second position and Artistic Licence from St Mary’s in third position. The evening concluded with a sophisticated set from the St Mary’s vocal groups, Liquid Gold and Afro Junkies.