No Rock And Roll Fun

IN THE CITY, NOTHING STIRRED: We've always thought that In The City's position as a premier talent-spotting event has been under question since they stopped having an overall winner from amongst the new bands, adopting a Young Mr. Grace style "You've all done very well" - without a crown for a band on offer, there's no real sense of competition, and without competition, there's very little for the press to get excited about - "lots of bands play well" isn't much of a headline. In addition, the manchester-based music conference has found it harder to attract music business types over the last couple of years, what with American label reps able to use the downturn in sales to cover their being frit to fly since Spetember 11th 2001, and all. It's not clear the event's turned a corner yet, either - this year, in fact, In The City have had to extend their deadline for demo tapes in an attempt to generate enough bands to choose from. It's a bit of a shame, really: ITC is a corking event, all things considered, and even if there's only a few A&R types there, it's still the best opportunity most non-London based bands will have to play to a range of people with chequebooks to hand. Go on, give a go:

Send your 3-track demo, biog and photo to:

ITC Unsigned 2004,
8 Brewery Yard,
Deva Centre,
Trinity Way,
Salford M3 7BB.