Leon Bratt has been crowned as the best unsigned acoustic act of 2012 after winning the Live and Unsigned Acoustic Grand Final in front of a sell-out audience at The O2 on Saturday.
The guitarist from Maulden wowed the judges to take away the title and also won a slot at Looe Festival later this summer.
Chris Grayston, Events Director of Live & Unsigned commented: "Leon has been excellent throughout the competition winning festival slots at Osfest and Folk on the Water too. He's an obvious talent, looks the part and is committed to his music too!"
The overall winners were Coco and the Butterfields who won £10,000 to develop their music and an incredible 18 date summer festival tour including a trip to Tour Fest in Rome. They were crowned Live and Unsigned champion at Proud2 within The O2 on Saturday night, describing the victory as 'Brilliant, it hasn't really sunk in yet. We've got so much out of the competition. In each round we've won something, now we've won the whole thing, it's amazing'!
The band won festival slots at Beach Break Live and Paddle Round the Pier in the earlier rounds of the competition. They also bagged a vintage guitar and a Blackstar amp before they even got to The O2 for the Grand Final.
Coco and the Butterfields first won the Indie & Alternative Grand Final with their genre crossing brand of 'Fip Fok' (a combination of Hip-Hop, Folk and Pop) on Saturday night before being announced as the overall Live and Unsigned 2012 Champion, having their prize presented to them by Radio One DJ Ras Kwame, who was judging the event.
Coco and the Butterfields beat more than 10,000 other acts to eventually win the biggest competition for original performers in the UK. As well as winning £10,000 to spend on development and an 18 date festival tour they will receive £10,000 worth of publicity investment, and an animated music video worth £10,000 courtesy of Gavdude. Also winning prizes through Live and Unsigned were Contraband who won the Rock & Metal Final and Molly who won the Urban/Pop category.
Along with Ras Kwarme, other judges on the day included: Kerrang! Unsigned presenter Alex Baker, Kiss FM Breakfast Presenter Charlie Hedges, NME New Music Editor Matt Wilkinson, one half of Artful Dodger Mark Hill, Universal A&R man Solomon Penumuchi, Metal Hammer's Dayal Patterson, Si Hulbert who produces for Ed Sheeran & One Direction and Matthew Parker from Music Radar.
Further festival slots were given out on the day as well as a Fret King Guitar endorsement, a Natal drum kit and Blackstar and TC Electronic amps.
Live and Unsigned is the biggest original music competition in the UK for unsigned bands and artists. Attracting over 40,000 musicians to enter this year, it has set itself apart from its predecessors by promoting originality.
To secure your audition place for next year's competition, go to www.liveandunsigned.uk.com
Information taken from official press release, for more visit Live And Unsigned
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