London's City Showcase launches search for new musical talent

London's annual City Showcase launched this week to seek out annual search for new bands, and solo artists.

City Showcase covers all types of music from classical to pop, from rock to urban. And all types of performers from bands to singer songwriters, from solo artists to DJ's.

The annual event that has helped showcase artists, including Keane, Razorlight, Amy Winehouse, Newton Faulkner, Natty, Hot Chip, Scouting for Girls, Sway, Seth Lakeman, N-Dubz, Lady Sovereign and Ray LaMontagne, giving them all both industry and media attention is launching its biggest ever search for this year's stars.

The three day music event has been bought forward this year to the new dates of Thursday 7th to Saturday 9th May.

Event organiser Nanette Rigg said, "We are more excited by this year's event than ever before. We believe that often in hard times the best music is written and this year we are more optimistic than ever about sourcing some amazing new talent."

"We have also expanded our creative team further and recruited seasoned music industry entrepreneur Seven Webster from 7pm management to assist in our quest for finding the best new talent. Having launched over 40 top 40 artists careers from Sasha and Digweed to Dido, McQueen and Mason and managing across the spectrum of music we are pleased to have added someone to our team that is genuinely excited by new talent as we are."

The event will culminate in a series of live events in venues in London's West End including the legendary Borderline. The event will also host a series of workshops and seminars at The Apple Store, Regent Street, bringing together aspiring talent along with influential figures in what is a much reshaped new music industry.

Any artists that want to showcase their work should send a CD demo with a MySpace link or weblink, a brief biography and a photo to: City Showcase, PO Box 2212, RH20 2XJ. Clearly mark your envelope as a City Showcase application. The deadline for applications is Saturday 21st March 2009.

Alternatively musicians may apply through www.sonicbids.com/cityshowcase. City Showcase submissions through Sonicbids are open to ALL artists, though there is one tour slot exclusively reserved for North American artists. Artists can also get in touch by going to the City Showcase MySpace site.




"It's hard to get anywhere as a band, and the City Showcase gig we played at the Islington Academy in February 2003 was a great opportunity for us to play on a bigger stage than we were used to. At that time we didn't have a record deal, so knowing there was no hope of tour support, every decent gig we were offered was a godsend and helped make us a better band." - Keane