Primitai win £60k in band contest

By Linda Serck
BBC Berkshire reporter

Primitai are working on a second album due for release in 2010

Sandhurst heavy metal outfit Primitai are celebrating after winning £60,000-worth of prizes in a national battle of the bands.

The quintet fought off 12,000 other bands in the Surface Unsigned contest, organised by the UK Music Industry.

"We're absolutely thrilled to win it," says frontman Guy Miller. "It's a really good prize to win."

The band are now busy working on a forthcoming second album slated for release in early 2010.

Winning the battle at the O2 Arena on Saturday 26 September 2009 is the culmination of a whirlwind six months for singer Guy.

"I'd only just joined the band, in April, and then I was told, 'right, we're in the battle of the bands'.

"So it's been a bit of a crazy ride. I didn't really know what to expect."

Despite having a clear game plan to win, the band were still amazed to bag the top prize.

"By the time we got to the semi-finals, we realised that the standard of bands at that stage was significantly higher," says Guy.

"We knew it was going to be a challenge so had to step up our game."

He adds: "Somehow we managed to battle our way through all the genres that were represented so we were up against pop bands and bands completely different to us.

"That's partly why were a little bit surprised, that we got through with our brand of metal. It seemed to prevail."

However, the master stroke of bussing hundreds of their fans to the O2 helped secure the win for Primitai.

With 50% of the mark down to the panel of judges, the rest was based on live show elements such as audience reaction and participation.

"We saw the importance of trying to get as many people as possible, so we actually booked a couple of coaches for the final, we put a huge invite out to all our fans and managed to get a good couple hundred of our fans there.

"So it was a great atmosphere."

The jubilant band received a £5,000 cheque on stage and a prize package that includes festival slots, a tour, photo shoots and industry mail outs as well as studio time and music equipment.

Primitai are also booked to play the Music Live event at the NEC in Birmingham on Friday 6 November 2009.

The band is made up of Guy from London, Nick Saxby (lead guitar) and Jamie Lordcastle (bass) from Sandhurst, Chris Chilcott (drums) from Southampton and Srdjan Bilic (guitar), originally from Bosnia but who now lives in Reading.

They released debut Through The Gates Of Hell in February 2008 and have just released a single called The Craft.