The Battle Of The Bands 2018 Winners

As with last year’s hotly contested competition, the trouble with the 2018 Stepping Stones: Battle of The Bands was ultimately having to choose one beautiful talent over another.

At last Sunday’s live showcase in The Whale, heads did fair spin at the cinemascope-range of musical talent on display.

Laoise Macken’s beautiful voice enveloped the room in a warm glow whilst Emily Beattie’s loopy grooves weaved their hypnotic spell, Lauren & Sam took us soul mining just before Hail & Rain kicked up a mighty storm, and Blush delivered a rush to the head that left pretty much everyone smiling.

Even those who couldn’t make it on the day – the hard-rockin’ and perfectly-formed Jet Fuel Chemistry and Russian-Irish exotic bird Margarita Chernikova – made their considerable presence felt on the day, as their Stepping Stones songs were blasted over the Whale PA whilst last year’s Judges Prize winners, Feuds, got ready for their special guest slot.

In the end, it was it was a hard call for the judges, but an even harder one for the voting public, as two clear leaders emerged pretty much neck-and-neck over the past four weeks. With hundreds and hundreds of votes cast, it ended up being too close to call, and so we’re awarding the Public Vote Award to both the beautiful Emily Beattie and the rockin’ Hail & Rain.

As for the judges choice, once they picked their jaws up from the floor at this year’s line-up, the entry that all three agreed upon was the burning Blush.

We’ll be organising the prizes over the coming weeks, but, for now, congrats to the winners, and a big, big thank you to all the incredible acts who entered, and to Greystones Municipal District and Greystones 2020 for putting up the groovy €1,500 of prizes.

Hey, we built this large, ever-expanding and economically-thriving town on ROCK AGUS ROLL!!

Now, go check out these incredible hot-rockin’ young artists right about here.