Chapman Family Support Slot

NME darlings The Chapman Family are returning to their spiritual home of The Georgian Theatre, Stockton as part of their UK tour this November and are offering a young local act the chance to play alongside them on the night.

The band, who hail from Teesside, have had a very impressive rise to prominence from playing Glastonbury Festival back in 2008 for the first time to supporting acts such as We Are Scientist...s, Editors and Jane’s Addiction, recording a session at Maida Vale Studios for BBC Radio 1 and, this year, heading out to SXSW and playing alongside Everything Everything and The Drums as part of the NME Showcase and also supporting Stereophonics in Tokyo, Japan.

Constantly trying to push local music in the area The Chapman Family are teaming up with Tees Music Alliance to offer a young local act the opportunity to play as part of the line up at The Georgian Theatre on Saturday 20 November.

Kingsley from the band said: “When I was at school and college the only places where the various rubbish bands I was in could play were at the end of term college show or school discos...OR if you were awesomely sneaky you could pretend to be 18 and play in pubs but unfortunately people are getting really strict about that now. You basically had one or two gigs a year, usually in front of a small group of friends who would say that you were amazing regardless of how terrible you really were. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that there are some good venues out there but the vast majority don't cater for bands under the age of 18 and I think that's wrong. So what we're trying to do here is to give a band out there the opportunity to play a professional venue with professional sound and lights with a professional band, (that's us by the way). It's an opportunity that I'd have killed for all those years ago and one that the good people at the Georgian will hopefully be implementing on a regular basis to give more young bands the chance to get a bit of exposure.

“As highlighted by the Generator Transmission event at the Discovery Museum last month there's a hell of a lot of undiscovered talent out there in the north east and a lot of them are barely out of short trousers, they just need venues to play.”

As well as getting on to the line up for the evening the chosen band will also receive the full VIP experience (full details TBA).

To qualify bands must be;
Teesside based
At least two members of the band must be under 18
Must have a demo of at least two original songs, a band photo and biography.

There will be two drop off points for demos to be handed into, one at Green Dragon Studios in Stockton and the second at Steven James Guitars on Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough. All demos must be received by Saturday 16 October to be in with a chance of winning.