{"id":25577,"date":"2018-02-16T16:23:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T16:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jomec.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?p=25577"},"modified":"2018-02-16T16:23:19","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T16:23:19","slug":"former-winners-back-band-contest-launchpad-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/16\/former-winners-back-band-contest-launchpad-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-winners back band contest as launchpad for success"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A WELSH band have spoken about how winning a Cardiff talent show, which is coming back to the capital for the seventh time this March, has spurred them on to further success. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Moon Birds, a five-piece band from Merthyr Tydfil won The Big Gig competition in 2016.<\/span><br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_25579\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25579\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-25579\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-770x578.jpg 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-1536x1153.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-500x375.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-293x220.jpg 293w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-1400x1051.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879.jpg 1647w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-25579\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-25579\" src=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-770x578.jpg 770w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-1536x1153.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-500x375.jpg 500w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-293x220.jpg 293w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879-1400x1051.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2018\/02\/IMG_5879.jpg 1647w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/noscript> The Moon Birds. Credit: Francis Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since winning, the group has been approached by independent festivals such as Between the Trees, The Big Cwtch and Merthyr Rising.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sam Williams, who plays bass guitar for the band said: \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our highlights after winning The Big Gig are the recognition as an outstanding live band, backed up by winning best live band in the 2017 Cardiff Music Awards. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe gigs that followed it and a sold out headline slot in Clwb Ifor Bach were the icing on the cake.\u201d<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this year&#8217;s competition, 12 acts will be shortlisted and go on to compete in two semi-finals held on March 14 at Fuel Rock Club on Womanby Street and March 17 at Cathays Community Centre.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They will get to perform in front of music industry professionals before the final held at the Clwb Ifor Bach on April 5.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The overall winner will win recording and rehearsal time at Music Box Studios in Leckwith, working with REM producer Charlie Francis, an interview and coverage with Media Wales, plus kit from music shop PMT. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mr Williams said: \u201cWorking with Charlie Francis was invaluable; the man is a genius and has a wonderful way of capitalising on things you hadn&#8217;t noticed. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWith Charlie, we recorded an entire track based on an outro of jam; there was something there that Charlie could see that we couldn&#8217;t. It would make a seriously cool B-side. We look forward to working with him again, he&#8217;s a real guru.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To enter and for full terms and conditions please visit www.visitcardiff.com complete the entry form and send it along with two MP3s of your music to biggig@cardiff.gov.uk.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The competition is open to all artists aged 16 and over from across South Wales; applications will be open from Monday February 12 and close at 5pm on March 2. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A WELSH band have spoken about how winning a Cardiff talent show, which is coming back to the capital for the seventh time this March, has spurred them on to further success. The Moon Birds, a five-piece band from Merthyr Tydfil won The Big Gig competition in 2016. Since winning, the group has been approached by independent festivals such as Between the Trees, The Big Cwtch and Merthyr Rising. Sam Williams, who plays bass guitar for the band said: \u201cOur [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":25581,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,42,3],"tags":[5636,1291,5637,160,5638,2901],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-25577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-city","category-music","category-news","tag-band","tag-cardiff-2","tag-independent-music","tag-music-2","tag-the-big-gig","tag-womanby-street"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ex-winners back band contest as launchpad for success - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2018\/02\/16\/former-winners-back-band-contest-launchpad-success\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-winners back band contest as launchpad for success - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A WELSH band have spoken about how winning a Cardiff talent show, which is coming back to the capital for the seventh time this March, has spurred them on to further success. 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