A real Battle of the Bands was witnessed at a special concert hosted by a group of Year 10 BETEC students on Friday 12 May.

All aspects of the event were organised by the students from coming up with the idea, pitching to Mr Bartlett, arranging refreshments and finally staging the concert; they also raised £200 for the Anthony Nolan charity in the process!

Five accomplished bands from Years 8, 9 and 10 performed in the competition, which culminated in a nail-biting audience vote to decide the winner, which, after much deliberation was Year 12 soul and blues band The Motive.

The Motive, comprising Nate Brazier (lead vocals and sax), Max Elliott (keyboard and vocals), Jamie Royle (drums), Oscar Williams (lead guitar) and Ned Woodcock (bass guitar), have been making music together for just over a year. The talented young musicians performed their debut gig last year at the Vera Fletcher Hall, as a support act to the highly-acclaimed Beatles4EverUK tribute band. Since then, they have been warmly received at several local venues.  As a prize for their win the band will be appearing live on stage at the 26th annual Surbiton Festival in September.

They will also be supporting Beatles4EverUK again at Imbercourt on Friday 7 July 2017. Tickets available from www.beatles4ever.uk or text 07886 665493.