Arctic Talent Management (ATM) is organising The Global Battle of the Bands, the first-ever worldwide talent competition for pop and rock bands.

Forget about artificial Pop Idol-style competitions, this is the real deal with real bands playing real music – live. Encompassing all musical genres, The Global Battle of the Bands will strive to bring the best un-manufactured new talent in the world to a wider audience. Throughout each year, beginning in 2004, local qualifying heats and national finals will be organised in countries around the world, with the eventual winners of these going forward to The Global Battle of the Bands, which will be held in a different major city each year.To kick off the competition, we are organising a ‘soft launch’ of the concept with the European Global Battle of the Bands on January 20 2004 at London’s Mean Fiddler (formerly Astoria II). This will feature 16 invited bands from around Europe chosen on the strength of their music and live performances by our network of scouts and industry experts. The winning band on the night will win the BOB Awards’ Best New Band in Europe title and $10,000. The best bands on the night will be also eligible to go on to The Global Battle of the Bands World Final, to be held in a major world city as yet to be decided in November 2004 and which carries a first prize of $100,000 and the BOB Awards’ Best New Band in the World title.

We already have hundreds of entries but we still want more. We are seeking as many exciting new signed or unsigned bands as we can find for consideration. Any band entering the competition has to be able to perform live on stage at the European Global Battle of the Bands at London’s Mean Fiddler on January 20 2004. A band can have up to eight members and there is no age limit.

For any band to be considered we will need to receive a music CD (or MP3) with two or three songs, band information and a photograph (or hi-res jpg). From this initial introduction we will make further enquiries about suitable candidates locally through our agents. Further details can be found at www.bobawards.com All material should be sent to: Arctic Talent Management, 7 Willow Road, London NW3 1TH, United Kingdom or by email to: music@arctictm.com

Meanwhile, Arctic Talent Management is currently recruiting promoters around the world to help organise local and national The Global Battle of the Bands events in their country/territory. For further details contact: info@arctictm.com