Rochdale band set their sights on festival stage

ProjectAURA

A Rochdale band has made it through to the second round of a competition which could see them play at the Benicassim Festival in Spain.

The competition, ‘Supajam - Fast Track to Benicassim,’ gives just one lucky band the chance to play at the festival on the same bill as Arcade Fire and the Arctic Monkeys. Thousands of bands entered and just 40 have progressed to round two – including Rochdale’s very own projectAURA.

ProjectAURA need to be placed in the top 5 bands to progress to the live in final in London.

Drummer, Ollie Felton, said: “We're absolutely ecstatic to have reached the second round and also very overwhelmed at the amount of support we have received, not just off our friends, but from strangers who just happened to bump into our music and enjoyed it.

“We're all rather nervous now though because this is a massive opportunity for us, pretty much career changing, so we're looking at it in more hope than expectation.”

The band is made up of Jonathan Henstock, 21, Rick Keen, 22, Paul Roberts, 25 and Ollie Felton, 18.

ProjectAURA has been together for two and a half years and they write all their own songs. Their idols vary from The Beatles to Radiohead.

Mr Felton said: “I entered the competition on behalf of the band because I saw an advert for it on the internet and thought it was an ideal opportunity to gain a bigger and wider fan base, as it would allow more people from all over the world to have a listen to us and vote for us if they wished to.”

He concluded: “Even if we don't get through to the final, the amount of exposure we've received from the competition is huge.

“Also playing on the main stage at Europe's biggest music festival would be quite an honour and would be a huge step to getting us signed.”

Voting for round two now open and will be until 22 May.

To vote for projectAURA visit: http://www.supajam.com/fib2011/entry/AURA