Hersham band aiming for Cowell's Christmas No 1
9:00am Saturday 8th September 2012 in News By Patrick Grafton-Green
A Hersham band is competing for the chance to record the single that may beat this year’s X Factor winner to the Christmas number one.
The Lazlo Device, who wrote much their music in a loft in Holly Avenue, are one of just 100 bands to be chosen from thousands that applied to the campaign Band Crusade.
Dan Murdoch, 29, the electro-rock band’s bassist and lead singer, said: “It’s a great feeling. You need to pinch yourself when you’re picked out of that many bands.”
They have been together for two years, and supported the likes of Finley Quaye and Alabama 3.
Band Crusade, voted for online by the public, will allow the winner to record a track and music video in time for the Christmas charts.
But despite the The Lazlo Device’s initial success, Murdoch was not getting carried away. He said: “It’s the early stages at the moment. There are a lot of great bands out there so we’ll see what happens.”
The competition was set up by three Sheffield-based music fans who, having become disillusioned with the current state of the music industry, were keen to reintroduce real bands to the UK charts.
It was hoped, come the festive period, that the British public would choose one of these real bands, all of which write and perform their own material, over Simon Cowell’s usual X Factor offering.
Murdoch said: “It’s a shame that that’s what the British public want to listen to. It’s about time the British public started supporting bands that produce their own material.”
The Lazlo Device’s first EP, Step Forward, is available on iTunes and Amazon.
The public can listen to and vote for the bands they prefer on the competition’s website bandcrusade.com. Voting is free and will run until the Thursday, November 15.
