South West Life

Margaret River band, Frankly, have won the honour of opening the MASS Music Festival on Saturday at Nippers Oval. On stage with the likes of Gyroscope and Cog, Frankly will have the golden opportunity to play to a festival crowd.

With St. Patrick’s Day offering another reason to celebrate, Settlers Tavern in Margaret River was overflowing with revellers on Wednesday night, providing an enthusiastic audience for the Local Band Competition.

Four judges from Sunset Events had travelled from Perth to choose a local band for the opening of the MASS festival, based on their festival viability, originality, stage presentation, audience response and ability to rock a crowd.

First up on stage, Frankly certainly hammered all the criteria, opening the set with an original song about Margaret River. The lively five-piece band had the crowd up and grooving from the outset with their funky, reggae rock.

Next, local band Bloody Holly took the stage, each member splattered in fake blood and wearing Buddy Holly glasses. They delivered a hard-hitting performance in a blend of rockabilly/punk which had the room pumping, the dance floor packed and the audience cheering, as they ended their set with some stage theatrics.

Bunbury band Silver Lizard was the last to play and did not disappoint, driving home a tight, fast-paced set with great vocals. Their aggressive punk rock beat kept the crowd amped until stumps.

With such a superb display of local talent, it was a difficult choice for the judges.

“I loved all the bands – they were fantastic. They all could have played on the bill. The South West can be very proud of the bands emerging,” said band competition judge and coordinator, Bruna Chiovitti.

In the end, though, newly formed local band Frankly were pronounced winners of the night and considering this was only their second gig, it is quite an achievement.

“We’ve only been together for a couple of months but it’s taken four years to find a crew that clicked,” vocalist Michelle Spriggs said.

With Michelle on acoustic guitar and writing their all original songs, Kim Lumsdaine on base, Kim Hornibrook on trumpet/trombone, Roger Renolds on drums and Kevin Mc Donald on guitar, Frankly look set to impress the festival crowd and will start recording their album next week.