Published: Wednesday, 3rd February, 2010 5:00pm

Search on for an 'untamed tiger'

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Looking for his inner tiger! Annebrook Hotel proprietor, Berty Dunne.

"It's not going to be like the X-Factor. This is totally different," says Berty Dunne of Mullingar's Annebrook House Hotel of the massive €20,000 national unsigned bands competition that's about to run at the hotel from March.

He doesn't mean that the judges will be kinder or nicer or nastier than Mr. Cowell: he means it's just not aimed at people starting out who have been told by their friends that they're "great singers", but who haven't ever sung a note in front of an audience before.

"It's really for bands that have been in the industry for a few years, and just need that break. It's to give them that platform from which to launch themselves," he says.

And as a competition for serious bands, there's a serious prize on offer, worth actually well over €20,000.

"There's a €5,000 cash prize, then there's €6,000 of state-of-the-art equipment from Music Maker, a professional photoshoot from Finnimaje, a week in the Nutshed Recording Studios, and a professional video shoot - not to mention the exposure that is coming out of it," says promoter, Bobby O'Reilly who has been working hard with Dunne since before Christmas putting the package together.

The two are hugely excited about the competition, which is being run in conjunction with the prestigious music publication, Hotpress. The magazine has thrown its full weight behind the competition, and it will be the magazine's team of music writers that will whittle down the entries to choose the twenty-four best acts. The format means that for each of the first round heats, four bands will compete.

The judges will then pick a winner from each of the heats, and there will be a "wildcard" chosen from the first three heats, and a second wildcard from the second three. Those eight bands will then go through to the semi-finals, from which two per night will qualify for the final.

The process will take a full ten weeks, starting off on March 19, and running every Friday night at Berty's Bar in the Annebrook, with the exception of Good Friday night, which this year falls on April 2. State-of-the-art lighting and sound systems will be in place to ensure bands get to perform at their best - and bands get to see them at their best.

Each heat winner will be interviewed the subsequent Sunday night on Ruairi Carroll's "Open Mic" show on Dublin's FM104.

Dubbed the "Tiger Untamed" competition, the adjudicators are to be Killian O'Sullivan, the former "Lorcan" from Fair City, who has since turned to deejaying and is a big name star on FM104; a representative of Hotpress magazine; a represent of the "Music Maker" store on Exchequer Street in Dublin (sponsor of the equipment element of the overall prize), and a representative of Celtic Media Group, which is publisher of the Westmeath Examiner, Westmeath Independent, the Offaly Independent, the Meath Chronicle and the Anglo Celt.

The "fifth" judge each night will be the audience: they too will vote on the bands, and their aggregated vote counts as that of one adjudicator each night.

"They loved the idea; they loved that we were so central, and also that we weren't just running it as a pub event, but as a music event," says Berty.

The prize will enable the winning band record two to three songs for release as a single; the time in the studio will enable them get the sound just perfect; the video shoot and the photo shoot will help in the promotion, and there will be 500 CD copies pressed.

"But there's more to it than that: it will be on iTunes, and the prize will really give the winners a platform from which to market themselves. They will also get taught how to manage their business, how to get barcodes sorted; how to get it registered so it gets included in the charts; they get the artwork sorted; the prize involves wrapping all that up," says Bobby.

While the competition - probably the biggest opportunity to come the way of rising bands in Ireland this year - is the main focus at the moment, it is really, the two explain, just the start of a greater plan.

"Berty wants to create a new music venue that highlights Mullingar into a Mecca for music," says Bobby.

"We want it to be a town known for having great live bands playing all the time."

It already has a good reputation in that regard, but Berty and Bobby want to showcase just how enthusiastic this town is about live music. But as of now, the search is on for a 'tiger - untamed'!