Bacardi Hot Press Plugged Band Of The Year Competition

Not even a suspect device on the railway line could prevent the Bacardi/hotpress team from reaching Belfast for the Northern leg of the new-look plugged format.

A capacity crowd turned out at Auntie Annie's in the centre of the city and it was up to Belfast based four-piece Booley to kick things off.

With a keyboard playing frontman, their high-octane brand of no-nonsense rock was evident on songs such as 'Tesco Queen' and 'Bathroom Floor' which recalled the Ben Folds Five at their finest. A slow-burner, 'Some Kind of Love', showcased the impressive vocal talents of the frontman and they rounded off a fine set with the spiky pop of 'TV'.

Strabane five-piece Underbelly sported an REM-ish sound, with jangly guitars very much to the fore. Songs such as the momentum-building 'Cracks In The Wall' were immediately impressive and they brought things down with the piano-based ballad 'Strangely at Peace'. Unfortunately they ended an otherwise impressive set with 'Slummer', a so-so 80's-style number that veered a little too close to Duran Duran for my liking.

Yet another strong vocalist fronted Kyle, who began with a countryish song, 'Live To Learn' and continued in an American FM radio vein with 'Sail On' and finished with two pop rockers 'Sugar Love' and 'Kryptonite'. Well paced and impressive, with a blend of supercharged hardcore hip-hop and punk/metal Superskin came on like a cross between Public Enemy and Public Image Ltd. Brilliantly choreographed numbers like 'Ritual' and 'Black Sex' saw the larger than life vocalist and cowboy-hatted guitar player pogo-ing off the stage into the crowd, who were enthusiastically lapping it up. They finished an exhilarating set with the incendiary, 'Boilermaker'.

After all that energy the gentler folk-rock of the Susan Tomelty Band came as something of a relief. A fine singer in the Sandy Denny/Mary Black tradition she brought things down to a whisper with fine songs such as 'I Hear You Calling Me' and 'Hold On To What You Believe In'.

A wide and varied mix of the North's finest, then but who would come out on top to take that third place in the grand final? Not altogether surprisingly, it was Superskin who triumphed in the end, a popular choice given the ecstatic reaction.