The finale of Wiltshire's Battle of the Bands 2002 took place at The Furnace in Swindon on Thursday July 18th.

Trowbridge Nu-Metal quartet Sub:Luminal won out and walked off with the £500 prize.

Following a month of online voting, the six bands who received the most votes played at the special finale gig of Wiltshire's Battle of the Bands 2002 at The Furnace in Swindon on Thursday July 18th 2002.

Competing in alphabetical order were - Trowbridge alternative rockers Equilibrium, Melodic Swindon band Latitude Blue, Chippenham College's Lightside, Melksham lads Nishe, Swindon pop-punksters Origin and Trowbridge metallers Sub:Luminal.

The Judges - Andy Scott of The Sweet, The Evening Advertiser's Flicky Harrison, BBC Wiltshire Sound's Kelly Stooke and BBC Points West reporter Steve Knibbs.

The judges for the evening comprised Swindon Evening Advertiser music journalist Flicky Harrison, BBC Wiltshire Sound afternoon show co-presenter Kelly Stooke, BBC Points West news reporter Steve Knibbs and star judge - Andy Scott, member of legendary 70s Glam Band, The Sweet, famous for hits such as 'Ballroom Blitz' and 'Love Is Like Oxygen'.

They were there to judge the six bands based on their level of performance, quality of original material, musical ability and crowd reaction. The winning band stood to win £500 worth of musical equipment from Swindon's leading music shop - John Holmes Music.

Equilibrium vocalist Nick Weston

BBC Wiltshire Sound mid-morning presenter, Dan Chisholm acted as compere and after explaining the plan for the evening, introduced the first band.

Equilibrium kicked off the event with a concise set of tight, moody alterna-rock songs. The youngest band of the evening with nearly all of the members under 18, Equilibrium immediately won the crowd over with their confident performance.

By the time Equilibrium left the stage, The Furnace was packed with over 300 people crammed into the club.

Latitude Blue's Gareth

Next up were local boys, Latitude Blue. Responding to the most melodic band of the evening, the buzz amongst the crowd pointed to the Swindon band being early favourites to win.

They certainly possess one utter gem of a song in the deliriously catchy 'Don't Lose Your Way'.

Lightside maintained the high standard already set by the previous bands and crashed through their set of loud, mid-paced grunge rock. 'Good Day/Bad Day' - the song that helped them get through to the final was a particular highlight.

Lightside

Mid-way through the evening, Melksham's Nishe hit the stage with the Nicolas Cage-look-a-like vocalist singing through a megaphone. Although they played a highly proficient set and were one of the most original bands on the bill, they disappointedly seemed unable to win the sizeable crowd over.

Jon Trowbridge from Origin

Penultimate band of the night, the three-piece Origin powered through their cache of upbeat punky tunes.

The general consensus at this stage seemed to suggest it was going to be a two-horse race between them and fellow Swindonites Latitude Blue. But there was still one band left to play....

Trowbridge's Sub:Luminal immediately caught the crowd's attention with their punishing brand of Nu-Metal. The dancefloor quickly turned into a mad mosh-pit as they churned out riff after crushing riff, under-pinned by the superlative drumming of heavy-hitting sticksman Steve Curtis.

Sub:Luminal

Apart from some tuning problems between songs, Sub:Luminal couldn't be bettered for outstanding musicianship, presentation and crowd appreciation.

After a short break for the judges to confer, star judge, Andy Scott came onstage and announced the winner.

In the end, Sub:Luminal were the thoroughly deserving winners of BBC Wiltshire's Battle of the Bands 2002 and Steve Curtis from the band went up and collected the £500 prize from Andy Scott.

The five runners-up were given a special commendation and each received a John Holmes Music 'goodie bag' containing guitar strings, drum sticks, plectrums and other freebies.

It was then left to the winners, Sub:Luminal to round off the night with a further performance.

BBC Wiltshire would like to thank all the bands who took part and helped make the contest such a resounding success. Even though there was only one winner at the end of the night, all the bands played superbly and we hope that everyone benefited from taking part.

This event showed that musical talent is thriving in the county. Roll on the next Battle of the Bands in 2003!