News: guitar idol competition update

News:
24-04-2008:
Owen Edwards has updated the current status of the competition which must have exceeded everyone's expectations. The final is set to take place at the London Music show, LIMS, which has a projected attendance of over 60,000 visitors and a line up of artists playing including Joe Satriani – and the winner opens up for Satch himself!



There are over 130 entrants, including international entries from Chile, Brazil, Greece, France, Germany, Canada - and loads from the US.

As a response to concerns over flight and hotel arrangements for the luck finalists the deadline for the competition is moved forward to May 25th.

Voting….
Owen says:

Subject to much speculation and comment so far, it is important that I clarify once and for all how the system has to run.

First of all, as clearly stated the Online vote is primarily for the Peoples Choice Award. This will guarantee you a Finalist place and a special prize.

The other finalist places will be decided by a panel of pro music industry figures from the sponsors and organising companies.

As an online competition it was important to have a public vote, but it was always going to be hard to balance how to achieve this: contestants with a massive network of online contacts and MySpace friends would always be in a stronger position than someone who might be the next Van Halen, but was comparatively unknown.

As this is a contest to find the best player out there we couldn’t just rely on this being an Internet popularity contest – equally in the modern day world self-marketing is vital, so having this as well is a massive help to the judges to assess if someone is the complete package. It’s harsh, but if someone is great but cant muster more than a couple of dozen votes then it’s not going to help their chances at all…

EVERY VOTE counts – and some of you who have been active for a few weeks with an indisputably great entry, but comparatively few votes (and you know who you are!) get working on this as soon as possible!

In the music industry of today you will have to promote yourself massively in order to get anywhere – no longer can you rely on record companies etc to do this – so use this as a way of brushing up on your networking abilities and SELL YOURSELF. Get every student/fan/friend/family member to support you NOW. There are 4 weeks left so it is vital not to waste any time.

read full details

The Live Performance

This will take place on Saturday, June 14th 2008 in the main stage, where Paul Gilbert, Satch, Guthrie Govan, Roger Daltry and the rest will be playing later in the weekend.

The Guitar Institute is providing a band to provide a backing for your entry – UNLESS you actively insist on using your own backing tracks, but remember that you will instantly lose the excitement and energy of a professional live band.

The finalists will be contacted directly well in advance to assess their requirements, and rehearsals shall take place on Friday 13th for those using the backing band.

Backline will be supplied, but it may be an idea to bring your own effects and pedals.

The winner will be selected by a panel of top industry figures - soon to be announced.

Prizes

For all the finalists this a fantastic opportunity to play in front of thousands of guitar fans on the Main Stage on the busiest day of the LIMS. Even if you don’t win think of the exposure…

Throughout the weekend the finalists can play on the Guitar Idol/Alloutguitar.com Stand

The Finals will be shown on Alloutguitar.com, Licklibrary.com and each contestant will have interviews and profiles on all associated sites and magazines.

The Winner will also have:

All Finalists will win prizes, but the outright winner will also collect prizes from:

Paul Reed Smith
Peavey
Roland
Rockschool
The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance
Lion Records



In the words of Joe Satriani:

“ …because I run G3, I’m looking for new players all the time, and it’s very hard - believe it or not! – to have some sort of outside filter go through the thousands of possible newcomers to offer up somebody that’s been through all these different stages of competition, and all of a sudden it comes to my attention and I go “Wow, look at this, this young player who comes from somewhere in the world –I don’t know it could be Chile, or Japan or London or whatever – and they’re 18 or something and just like amazing.

That great for me because I can approach that person and say “Hey, lets do something – let’s take you somewhere, lets help you climb to the top”. So that’s great - I’m really looking forward to it!”