New bands of 2006: An Investigation (part 2)

So this is the follow up to my mini appraisal of a 2006 New Bands feature in The Fly Jan 2006 issue. Part 1 showed Kaiser Chiefs manager James Sandom doing his best impression of a musical prediction genius, let's see if anyone can beat him. A reminder of the scoring system - we're using the "2006 Libs/Babyshambles/Dirty Pretty Things/Yeti scale" where the Libs had 'made it' (even though they split way before 2006) and are worth 4 points and Yeti remained in relative obscurity and thus are worth only 1 point. If it doesn't make sense yet, it will.

John Kennedy (XFM DJ, host of the amazing Xposure radio show)
Mystery Jets - The Libs; Larrikin Love - Babyshambles; Jamie T - The Libs; Les Incompetents - DPT; The Holloways - The Libs; Good Shoes - Babyshambles; Kubichek! - DPT; DARTZ! - DPT; Shit Disco - Babyshambles; ¡Forward, Russia! - The Libs; iLiKETRAiNS - DPT; I Love Poland - Yeti; The Ivories - DPT; The Sunshine Underground - The Libs; The Automatic - The Libs; Shuffle - Yeti; Former Bullies - Yeti; I Had An Inkling - Yeti; Keith - DPT; The Longcut - Babyshambles; Optimist Club - Yeti; Kalev - Yeti; Action Plan - DPT; Liam Frost - DPT; Nancy Elizabeth Cunliffe - Yeti; Emmy The Great - DPT; Darren Plant - Yeti; Jeremy Warmsley - DPT; Metronomy - DPT; Sway - The Libs; C-Mone - Yeti; Plan B - The Libs; Union Of Knives - DPT; Rumble Strips - Babyshambles; Long Blondes - The Libs; Shy Child - Babyshambles; Detachment Kit - Yeti; Be Your Own Pet - DPT; Tilly And The Wall - Babyshambles; The Midnight Ramble - Yeti; Metro Riots - Yeti; Vincent Vincent & The Villains - DPT; Hot Chip - The Libs.

Hit rating - 10/43. Points per band = 2.35 (101/43). As with his radio show, John praises about a million bands! Quite a few biggies but also many complete unknowns.

Emmy The Great & Jeremy Warmsley - Poor Little Rich Boy (Regina Spektor cover) [right click, save as>]//[Alt d/l link]//[Emmy's MySpace]//[Jeremy's MySpace]
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Tim Perry (manager of London venue, The Windmill)
The Spinto Band - Babyshambles; Hockey Night - DPT; Clor - Babyshambles; Roland Shanks - DPT.

Hit rating - 0/4. Points = 2.5 (10/4). Decent choices here and a real pity that both Clor and Roland Shanks have split. See the Part 1 post [link] for a Roland Shanks mp3.
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Nick Burgess (A&R for Virgin Records)
The Feeling - The Libs; The Kooks - The Libs; Jamie T - The Libs; Mystery Jets - The Libs; Gnarls Barkley - The Libs; The Spinto Band - Babyshambles.

Hit rating - 5/6. Points = 3.83 (23/6). An amazing list really, with pretty much all the bands making it (the Spinto Band falling just short) and some of these bands going truly stratospheric!
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Mike Watson (Music PR)
Mystery Jets - The Libs; ¡Forward, Russia! - The Libs; Tera:Tora - DPT; Ninjah - Yeti; The Dykeenies - DPT; The Holloways - The Libs; Kid Harpoon - DPT

Hit rating - 2/7. Points - 2.71 (19/7). Not bad going here, Mike even mentioned Mastodon as well quite surprisingly.
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Tim Dellow (co-founder of Transgressive Records)
¡Forward, Russia! - The Libs; Optimist Club - Yeti; Youthmovies - DPT; Young Knives - The Libs; Tom Vek - Babyshambles; Wolf Parade - Babyshambles.

Hit rating - 2/6. Points = 2.83 (17/6). I think the main thing from this is whatever happened to Tom Vek?!

Youthmovies - If You'd Seen A Battlefield (Live) [right click, save as]//[MySpace]
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Ian Abraham (The Fly's Ones To Watch editor)
Captain - Babyshambles; Duels - Babyshambles; Guillemots - The Libs; The Crimea - DPT; Gavin Thorpe - Yeti; The Spinto Band - Babyshambles; We Are Scientists - The Libs; Humanzi - DPT; The Automatic - The Libs; Boy Kill Boy - The Libs; Morning After Girls - DPT; Larrikin Love - Babyshambles; On-Offs - DPT; Fear Of Music - DPT; Dive Dive - Yeti; Polytechnic - DPT; Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - The Libs; Technically Men - Yeti.

Hit rating - 5/18. Points = 2.61 (47/18). Mixed bag but generally a good showing.

Fear Of Music - Sheets We Test [right click, save as]//You can also download it via a link on their [MySpace].
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So A&R man Nick Burgess is the runaway winner but overnight leader James Sandom does well enough to take second place. It's interesting to see how few picks have truly made it (I was generous with points scoring) and also how many of the bands have dissolved despite being hailed as future stars. I suppose this really highlights the fickle nature of the music industry. Oh well. Let's hope my 2007 choicess manage to last the year!