Surface Unsigned National Showcase @ Birmingham Carling Academy

This took place on Saturday 13th (omen?) August 2008.

Here's the review of our performance:

A New Breed Of Monkey play a mixture of Progressive, broodingly atmospheric indie and energetic Indie-Rock distinguished by some intelligent lyrics, haunting melodies and sharp guitar-work. Vocally front-man “The Bung” is similar to that of Maximo Park’s Paul Smith and in the quieter moments there is even a little Guy Garvey (Elbow), and like their northern counterparts there is a great deal of emotional intensity in the music ANBOM make. Very tight and well arranged it’s a compelling direction which sits nicely alongside the current crop of indie hopefuls yet at the same time is nicely removed ensuring the band standout as something original and genuinely exciting.

(Surface Unsigned website)

Here's what Joe says (the day after):

Today is a sad sad day in musical history people......

Do you remember Lennon being shot outside his New York Apartment?

What were you doing when you heard Johnny Marr had left The Smiths?

Or when the Roses split?

Well this is no where near as bad as any of the above but it was a bit sad. The Surface Unsigned Festival 2008 is over and a New Breed of Monkey are NOT the champions. In fact we walked away without winning anything whatsoever, a result that shocked the 60+ fans we had brought down to the Carling Academy, Birmingham. But we will live to play another day!!!

That's right, we had a hell of a journey getting down to the 14 best unsigned bands in the UK. We played some unbelievable shows at the best venues in Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. We made some valuable contacts in the industry. We've got a professional DVD of the National Showcase which will be on sale for a small fee later this year. And most of all, we learned that we CAN take 120 people from Burnley and Pendle to support us wherever we play! To everyone who attended any of the 5 shows throughout the competition we can't thank you enough! You really did make them some of the best gigs we have ever played.

So we are going to dust ourselves off, get back in the practice room and come back even stronger. We have a couple of weeks off now as I am moving house and we wanna get some more songs written. When we return we have some amazing shows lined up including 'In The City' festival in Manchester, The Ritz and The Attic supporting Bonehead from Oasis! More on them soon.

Thanks again for your loyal support. Keep believing.

Joe