Since Stripped Back 2012 launched at the start of the year, The Ivy House has seen some fantastic performances with weekly head to heads pitting the finest talent across the North East against one another to play for the punters votes.
With an array of prizes on offer for the act crowned as Stripped Back’s act of 2012, including £1000, a full digital release on bunkeruk records, a chance to play Evolution & Split Festival 2013 and a place on annual Bunker compilation CD, we have had some fantastic rounds of live music to impress the gig going folk of Sunderland.
Four of The North East's biggest players The Bunker, Split Festival, Generator and Spark FM joined forces to create the year-long showcase with each round taking place on a weekly basis. 3 acts perform a short acoustic set in an attempt to win over punters with their stripped-back sets. The audience choose their favourite performance there and then! Each rounds winner appears on a weekly online leaderboard as well as being invited in to Spark to perform live and give a short interview about their win. At the end of the year, a prize fund total of £1000 will be up for grabs, for those who make the final event.
At the end of the year, the top 16 acts will go into a knock-out stage and are guaranteed to appear on Stripped Back 2012's Compilation CD released on Bunkeruk Records. The final 4 will then go on to perform in front of a panel of Split, Evo and Generator representatives who will compete for the prize fund totalling £1000 where the winner will also have their single released through BunkerUK including press, promotion and distribution. Winners will also be given the opportunity to perform at 2013's Split and be part of the UMT stage line-up at the following years Evolution Festival.
So far we have seen the likes of Amy Holford, recently playing Evolution Festival, local magician on a loop pedal Paul Liddell and rising stars Agerskow come through as winners of their rounds. Every gig is Free entry, with all types of acts welcome to enter. Bands/Artists can enter up to 4 times throughout the year.
Joe Frankland, Musician Support Manager at Generator said “Generator and our UMT Academy are thrilled to be involved in Stripped Back 2012. The UMT Emerging Stage at Evolution Festival gives emerging artists in the region a chance to perform at the largest music event of the year. With so many artists involved in Stripped Back, we feel it’s a great opportunity to unearth the region’s best acoustic talent to perform alongside some of the best talent in the North East and graduates of our Urban Music Training Academy. We look forward to discovering some great new artists.”
For more information and rules go to Stripped Back 2012's facebook.
If you would like to play at one of the up and coming rounds please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Here is the leaderboard so far:
Stripped Back 2012 Leaderboard
Gig Date Artist Votes
19th Jan ELI 26
2nd Feb Amy Holford 23
16th Feb Ange Telford 21
26th Jan Black Goose 16
23rd Feb Paul Liddell 15
1st Mar Urban Masquerade 13
12th Apr Agerskow 13
15th Mar The Paul Liddell Band 12
22nd Mar Wrestling 12
29th Mar Tony Bengtsson 11
5th Apr Kevin Roachford 10
9th Feb Chris Binding 9
19th April Dean James 9
26th April Jen Stephens & The Hiccups 20
3rd May Faith Elliott 29
17th May Dalaro 9
24th May Lily Brooke 14
31st May Chloe & The High Tides 18
7th June HOLE / The Bluebuds 7
14th June Callum Norton 10
