Battle of the Bands

As ‘Earth, Wind and Fire’ would tell us, the 21st night in September was one to remember for four young and aspiring musicians. Unfortunately, we had to miss the charity event at school for the first episode of the annual ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition - not to watch, but to compete in as ‘Initial Destruction’ - formed of Zak Seagers 13KMJ (lead guitar), Riley Hickman 11N (guitar and vocals), Guy Partridge 11K (bass) and Paras Chodha 11N (drums).

As a group, we only debuted in March 2024, and this was to be our sixth performance, the third in public. The event was competed in knockout rounds, and as we sat in our dressing room, with backstage support and our own media manager, we were still deciding on which songs to compete with. In the end it was Metallica's ‘Enter Sandman’ for the first round. Our big song was Iron Maiden’s ‘The Trooper’... and, not to forget, also our winning song. On a big stage in The Orchard West Theatre, we played our hearts out to a welcoming crowd and their votes led us to a close victory. It was then time for our set to close the U18 competition, filled with covers and originals.

Full credit to the other bands as well, their talent was impressive, and from one especially young drummer too. Big thanks to the Orchard for hosting us, as well as all the crew and our supporters—hopefully we'll be back again before too long.

In the meantime, watch this space as we'll be releasing some singles (or an EP??), recorded in a studio, our prize for the competition. If anyone is interested, check us out online @initialdestruction or feel free to contact any of us. 

Zak Seagers 13KMJ