Sennheiser has proved its commitment to grass roots music once again by being the main sponsors of the 2007 Bandwagon Soundclash Competition, providing a huge selection of microphones and headphones to the eventual winners, promising up and coming band Fat Sue. Soundclash in association with Sennheiser was a resounding success for all involved.

The South London foursome, comprising singer and guitarist Jamie Bakker Simmons, guitarist Jack Burgess, bassist Ben Pietch and drummer Ben Dickson, entered the Competition by posting a song on the Bandwagon web site. A few months later, after many hours of consideration by judges at Bandwagon and in the Sanctuary Records A&R department, they were declared winners.

Their prize consisted of four Sennheiser e840 vocal mics, two e606 guitar mics, one e602 bass drum mic, three e604 drum mics, three e614 hi-hat mics with a trio of eH350 headphones and four PM190 mic stands thrown in for good measure. With a pair of Orange amplifiers also included in the prize, the band members were naturally delighted with the haul.

"We've been recording on Garage Band software at home," explains Fat Sue's Dickson. "In the past couple of months we¹ve been moving slightly upwards - from recording in my bedroom to doing some recording in a fancy studio." "We had one Sennheiser mic," points out Bakker Simmons. "But we were mostly using £15, straight into the amp through a jack mics. Using a decent mic makes all the difference. It makes everything a lot easier." "It's nice to be rewarded as well," laughs Burgess. "If you have people like Sennheiser and Orange willing to help you out it can really make such a difference."

Bandwagon is an on-line music community that supports new and breaking artists. The Soundclash Competition was launched to promote and encourage music participation in schools. The competition ran from the end of 2006 to early 2007, with the sole condition for entry being that at least two band members had to be at school or college. It proved more popular than anyone expected as the team at Bandwagon had to listen to over 350 bands that posted songs on-line. Their unenviable task was selecting their top ten to be judged by the A&R team at Sanctuary, accompanied by another ten bands selected by voters visiting the Bandwagon web site.

This wasn't the first highly successful competition Bandwagon has been involved with. In 2006 they were partners for Virgin Mobile's 'Road To V' competition, providing one unsigned band a slot at the 2006 V-Festival that was won by The Bombay Bicycle Club, who were subsequently signed to Nettwerk Management and are gaining real traction in the UK Indie Music scene.

Sennheiser UK's Artist Relations Manager Phil Cummings visited The London PA Centre in London¹s famous Denmark Street to present Fat Sue with their prizes.

"It's hugely important for us at Sennheiser to continue supporting grass roots music," he explained. "Naturally we have a long history of supporting World Class artists like George Michael and Muse, but it's also important that we aware of the needs of people starting their musical journey. Fat Sue have already been chosen by the experts at Bandwagon and Sanctuary Records as a band with huge potential. The fact that they participated in this competition proves that new artists understand how important microphone selection actually is." Andy Cooper, host of the presentation and proprietor of the London PA Centre, agrees that bands' interest in microphone technology is growing.

"We've always had singers and frontmen who want to make sure they sound good coming to the PA Centre," he said. "Now they're getting the whole band down here to get all the kit sorted out."