Academy Events and Fireball are pleased to reveal the first round of successful applicants for Fireball’s Hottest Band 2019 Competition in association with Kerrang! Magazine.
The initial 30 successful entrants were narrowed down from over 350 entries to this year’s competition, and will be playing across four regional live heats announced today for Sheffield, London, Newcastle and Birmingham, featuring several special guest headliners, with the London date being a bumper all-dayer event.
The winning bands going through to the regional heats are:
Red Winter, Without Andrew, The Human Project, Counting Coins, Deadset Dream, W.O.R.M, Northern Horizon, Deadbeat Paradise, Digits, Thieves of Liberty, LoGox, Too Close For Missiles, The Lagan, WACO, The Famous Class, These Five Years, Mick O’Toole, The Run Up, Death By Shotgun, Black Water County, Sinful Maggie, Wood & Nails, Lightblue, Blick Black & The Chilihollers, One State Drive, Worry, and Brixton Alley.
Each date will be judged by a special panel comprised of judges from Kerrang! Magazine and Fireball alongside local music industry experts from each city.
Sheffield’s panel is completed by Georgia Rawson (editor of Discovered Magazine), previous winners Sweet Little Machine, and local promoter Bradley Neen (College Radio / Violet Gang), whilst Birmingham’s heat will be judged by Chris Ward (city manager for alternative clubnight brand Uprawr) and Reece Hayden (owner of local recording haunt Bay 10 studios).
Newcastle’s entries will be presided over by Lee Allcock (editor of local music outlet NE Volume) Chris Felton (Metro Radio), and Steve Jones (general manager of music venue Think Tank?), and down in London the winners will be selected by Eugene Butcher (publisher of some of the UK’s largest punk rock magazines including Vive Le Rock, Louder Than War, and Down For Life) alongside Claire Macleod (X-ray Touring).
The regional winners from each heat will go on to open their local date on the ‘Fireball – Fuelling The Fire’ Tour 2018, with the overall winners being crowned Fireball’s Hottest Band 2019 and opening the entire tour next year.
Commenting on the announcement, Fireball UK Brand Ambassador Matt Reynolds, also of rock duo Haggard Cat, said: “Things are really starting to hot up (pun intended) now as we prepare to go into the live heat stages of Fireball’s Hottest Band Competition. This is where I start to get really excited for the Fuelling the Fire tour because it’s the first time I get a look in at what really shapes the tour for the year: the local scene in each city.
“I also finally get to see who’s going to be our opener for each show! From the sheer quality of all the entries so far I can tell I’m about to delve into a whole lot of amazing underground live acts over the coming weeks – it’s going to make it so hard to pick the finalists; it’s a tough job, but someone has to do it!”
Fireball’s Hottest Band 2017 winners Sweet Little Machine went on to play alongside the likes of Reel Big Fish, Anti-Flag and Mad Caddies, and garnered further support slots with Me First and The Gimme Gimmes, Patent Pending, Don Broco and many more, also appearing at Fireball stages across several UK festivals.
Hitting the road throughout December 2018, the ‘Fireball – Fuelling The Fire Tour’ will feature a star studded line-up of the best in punk music, with The Bronx recently joining previously announced headliners in Celtic-punk legends Flogging Molly, So Cal punk veterans Face to Face, and the Glasgow pop-punks from Fireball’s Hottest Band 2018 Lost in Stereo.
#FuelledByFireball
Fireball’s Hottest Band Competition 2019 Live Heats:
02.09.18 – London – O2 Academy Islington
+ Special guests TBA
(w/ The Lagan, WACO, The Famous Class, These Five Years, Mick O’Toole, The Run Up, Death By Shotgun, Black Water County, Sinful Maggie)
05.09.18 – Newcastle – O2 Academy
(w/ Northern Horizon, Deadbeat Paradise, Digits, Thieves of Liberty, LoGox, Too Close For Missiles)
06.09.18 – Sheffield – O2 Academy
+ Special guests Sweet Little Machine
(w/ Red Winter, Without Andrew, The Human Project, Counting Coins, Deadset Dream)
07.09.18 – Birmingham – O2 Academy
+ Special guests Templeton Pek
(w/ Wood & Nails, Lightblue, Blick Black & The Chilihollers, One State Drive, Worry, Brixton Alley)