Vicar St. certainly was the only place to be last Thursday evening as six of the hottest new bands in the nation gathered to battle it out for the prestigious title of Bacardi hotpress Plugged Band of The Year 2002.

The finalists, chosen from the hundreds of entries received, were all winners of the regional heats that had taken place up and down the country since January.

For the band who emerge triumphant in what is undoubtedly the most prestigious and longest running new band competition in the land, the rewards were tantalizingly desirable. Over £30,000 worth of booty was at stake, not to mention the prestige and the media attention, which will surely follow in the wake of victory

As has become the norm over the past few years with this hugely popular event, the contest took place before a packed audience, including scores of invited guests and a panel of expert judges drawn from the Irish music industry.

They included Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot (sporting a fetching Mick Ronson T-shirt), and a heavily tattoo-ed Ricky Warwick from Glasgow grunge ‘n’ roll outfit The Almighty. Looking remarkably youthful was the former Jimi Hendrix Experience bassist, Noel Redding, this year celebrating the 35th anniversary of the release of their classic debut album, Are You Experienced?

Also on the panel were the Evening Herald’s Richard Delevan, Ciara Doyle from Trend Studios, Hannah Hamilton and Ken Allen from hotpress, Nick Kelly of the London Times, Eithne Mooney from RTE’s Open House, Aideen McCarthy from Bacardi, Music Publisher Johnny Lappin, 2FM’s Damien Farrelly and Brian Adams from Today FM.

Joint MCs for the evening were Today FM’s Jim O’Neill and 2FM’s Ruth Scott, who kept the crowds entertained throughout the evening with spot prizes and sundry other goodies courtesy of tonight’s sponsors.

Dublin band Romolus Pop had the unenviable task of opening the proceedings. To their credit they carried it out with no little panache and style, aided it has to be said by huge support from the audience. Their big, sweeping sound and widescreen textures recalled early U2 and Simple Minds especially in the guitar and vocals department, the highlights of an exhilarating set include numbers like ‘Tide’ and the Nirvana-like ‘Terrified’. A brilliant start!

Three-piece Mother Of Pearl, winners of the Limerick heat, featured the talents of the cat-suited Ali De Siate, whose powerful voice and “rock chick” persona guaranteed the rapt attention of both the audience and panel alike. Augmented by the clever use of samples and some tasty guitar work they put on a performance which would grace any festival stage. Ones to watch!

Clontarf four-piece Horizon dealt in straightforward no nonsense songs without adornment of any kind. Frontman Robin O’Rourke’s voice perfectly suited their well written, melodic songs which ranged from alt. country-ish to indie, while the guitar playing of Simon O’Rourke added class to a fine, understated performance.

Previous finalists Blotooth kicked off with a clever movie sample before launching into a set that was as quirky as it was entertaining. The woolly-hatted frontman Myles O’Reilly excelled on songs like ‘Day Job’, a hit single in the making if ever there was one while the rhythm section seemed almost telepathically in tune with each other.

Looking every inch the classic rock and roll outfit they clearly aspire to being, Belfast heat winners Indigo Fury came on like old pros. Fronted by the supremely confident Rory Lavelle and blessed with a talented line up that includes a Keith Moon-obsessed drummer and a left-handed guitarist, they blazed through a set of superbly conceived numbers that had everyone in the house on their feet.

The sixth and final act to go before the jury were the three-piece Crayonz, winners of the last Dublin heat. With matching colour co-ordinated t-shirts, their punchy, melodic indie/grunge textures and winning melodies made for a perfect ending to a thoroughly riveting evening of top-notch talent.

While the judges were casting their votes, we were treated to a special guest performance from The Sutras whose ‘Machine’ was judged by listeners of Tom Dunne’s Pet Sounds to be the Bacardi/hotpress Song of The Year.

But back to the main business of the evening and after what seemed like an interminable length of time, the white smoke finally appeared in the shape of Jim O’Neill and Ruth Scott with that vital piece of paper bearing the name of the winner. The anticipation and excitement reached fever pitch as they announced in unison “... Indigo Fury!”

Cue a mixture of celebrations and disappointments all round, though few present would deny that Indigo Fury weren’t worthy winners. For their troubles they bag a prize package worth £30,000 including £2,500 cash from Bacardi, 500 CDs from Trend Studios, a Roland vs840 hard disc home recording unit from Musicmaker and oodles of other booty to help them on the way to fame and fortune.

For the rest of the bands there always next year!