Road to Standon: Final Heat

Standon Calling’s made it’s mark by keeping it’s ear to the ground and spotting talent early on. The Road to Standon is a natural evolution of this, with the winner being given the opportunity to appear on the main stage at the festival. The final Road to Standon heat is on Thursday 14th July. Those competing are:

Oh! Gunquit, who have this raucous punky garage thing going on. They’re all finger snaps, guitar twangs and quirky vocals, with the occasional honk of a horn. Reminds us of the 5,6,7,8’s and we’ve been after them for years.
MiAOW almost played at last month’s event, but couldn’t make it. It was a sad moment because we had already developed a bit of a soft spot for em. However it all changed with one sunshine-happy email last week saying they’d like to play our final gig. They describe themselves as French electro with Jazzy vibes, but they forgot a very important disclaimer: IN A GOOD WAY.
Foreign Hands hail from Manchester and they haven’t let the side down. They’ve got the indie thing down to a t, but with a touch of northern grit where it’s needed.

The Road to Standon is being judged by Natasha Haddad (The Great Escape booker); Jon Hillcock (New Noise podcast and Ex-NME, XFM and 6music DJ); Olly Hodgson (Coda Music Agency); Andy Malt (CMU editor) Ally Wolf (booker for The Old Queen’s Head, The Nest, The River Rat Pack Tour); Ollie Clueit (radio plugger/award-winning blogger); and Tamsin McLarty (Standon Calling booker).

The Road to Standon is held at the Old Queen’s Head in Islington. The door charge is £3 and all profits go back into bringing wonderful new music to Standon Calling! Standon Calling enjoys a reputation for showcasing emerging talent with artists including Florence and the Machine, Mumford and Sons, Friendly Fires, The Noisettes, Anna Calvi, Delphic and Paloma Faith all playing the festival before they acquired the profiles they have today.