Battle of the bands a success

26 May Battle of the bands a success

Delhi Modern School’s The Who Not won the first-ever inter-schools Battle of the Bands hosted at Woodstock School in Mussoorie on Saturday, beating off competition from eight other bands, in the event which was watched around the world through an online webstream.

The 70s-influenced six piece wowed the audience of about 400 in Woodstock’s Win Mumby gym, which had been transformed into a state-of-the-art music venue, with covers of old school rock band Pink Floyd, and an instrumental featuring Led Zeppelin. They also played a version of Muse’s Newborn which was well-received by judges and crowd alike.

They pipped runners up The Revelations to the title, an all female band from All Saints College, Nanital, who also impressed with their set of blues-influenced rock which left the audience baying for more.

In third place was Woodstock’s very own Seniors band who whipped the crowd into a frenzy with covers of Coldplay, Arcade Fire and Nirvana.

The other bands which took part in the contest were Onyx, from Hope Town School in Dehradun, Inequations from the Doon School, and Woodstock bands The Poker Chips, Slacker Asians, Paranormal, and Empty Void.

The winning band won 10,000 rupees, while individual prizes of 2000 rupees went to the best vocalist (Jahnui Rawat, All Saints Nanital), best guitarist (Tashi Lama, Woodstock), best bassist (Raghav Dutt, Delhi Modern), best drummer (Sohail Das, Woodstock), and best keyboard player (Uzir Thapa, Woodstock).

The event was organised by Woodstock students Bendix Kemmann, Uddhav Mehra, Pranav Rajouria and Atila Jamir, in conjunction with music teacher Lindsay Boyd.

Best bassist Raghav Dutt, from Delhi Modern’s winning band The Who Not, said the Battle of the bands had been “brilliant”.

“We’ve never had a crowd like we did at Woodstock and the stage and set up was unparalled, compared to other Battles of the Bands we’ve been in. We’re very grateful to everyone at Woodstock.

“It was great that the show was streamed live on the internet, as it meant about 50 of our friends could watch live online.”

Woodstock School Communications Associate Ed Beavan said the day had been a great success, and hoped it could now become an annual event.

“We created a mini Woodstock Festival here at Woodstock! The standard of the music was largely excellent, and the students who organised it did a great job. Next year we hope it can be even bigger and better, with more schools involved.”

Phuriwat Chiraphisit, Development Associate in Photography snapped these great photos. When Phuriwat was not snapping photos he was also in the Woodstock band, The Poker Chips playing guitar.