By Community Correspondent Samia Ahmed

Phenomenal gigs are not just restricted to places such as Wembley or Camden. Croydon has its own music scene, which was represented on the 20th of February in the heart of the borough. Some of Britain’s unsung, young talents hit the stage in Folly’s End Croydon. Bands and solo artists such as The Special K's, Rizzle Kicks, In The Long Run, MiLLiON, MC Mozart, Burning the Beginning, Jake Bentley-Ross, The Indigos and Access to Apollo created an electric atmosphere.

The gig was held by a company consisting of young enterprising students called ‘Set Your Sounds’. They held a 'Battle of the Bands' style competition where each band or artist played three songs each, at least one of which had to be their own material. All acts showed an intensity of passion and dedication to their music. There were genres ranging from Indie and Pop to Hip-hop and Beatbox.

One of the competing bands ‘Burning the Beginning’ is a Post-Hard Core band who are typical teenagers that enjoy eating at restaurants such as “Nandos, KFC and the chicken and chip shop round the corner”. Their dream would be to play at “Roundhouse in Brixton”. Similarly competing at the gig was self taught, solo Chiptune artist ‘MiLLiON’, who told me: “I want to explore different music genres and I definitely want to go to The Brit School of Performing Arts”.

When interviewing Howard Kay, Ryan Holt, Matt Griffiths, Tom Gamdolfo and Darren Watts who were the closing act: The Special K’s, they said they see their style of music as “Dance-Pop…I can imagine it playing at the end of a party in a teen comedy”. They also say their style of clothing is “casual, street wear and not stylish”, however, I beg to differ (see pictures to the right). Howard tells me the most recent movie he saw was “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” and the others say “Avatar”. The six members of the band are simply down to earth guys who are extremely driven and motivated by each other. Their inspiration and music icons include John Mayer, Saul Williams and Biffy Clyro.

Jordan and Sylvester from ‘Rizzle Kicks’ (an Indie and Hip-pop band) thought they had “no chance of winning because the CD got messed up” only to be told a few minutes later that they were the winners of the gig and could possibly get a chance to play at the O2 Arena. The two 18 year olds are students at the Brit School of Performing Arts in Croydon and even though they live in Brighton, travelling daily shows their serious commitment. Their favourite artists include Pete Doherty, Jamie T, Arctic Monkeys and Dirty Pretty Things. The two are worthy winners who want to become “critically acclaimed and successful”.