Young Musicians: Tune up and get ready for battle

Young people across the county are being invited to join a brand new online 'battle of the bands' music competition.

Rock bands, solo artists, pop, jazz, hip hop and classical - whatever the genre, Kent's music stars of the future aged between 11 and 18 are being asked to display their talents online in Music Clash '11.

From today young musicians can upload a short video of an original piece of work to musicclash.kent.gov.uk, which will then be rated by the public over the next two months.

The competition is being run by Kent County Council and is sponsored by Canterbury Christ Church University's Broadstairs Campus with support from Kent Music and music charity Rhythmix.

Winners will get an amazing package of top technical help from music industry insiders, including laying down their track in a studio and performing a live filmed gig.

The top five entries will spend a day in one of the state-of-the-art recording studios at Canterbury Christ Church University's Broadstairs Campus where an expert sound technician will help put a professional polish on their winning work.

They'll also get top tips for succeeding in the music industry during a master class led by one of the music industry professionals who teach at the campus. Finally they'll be given advice on how to set up on stage before performing their winning entry at a live gig in the Horizons bar at the Broadstairs campus which will be filmed for the internet.

To find out more and enter the competition go to www.kent.gov.uk/musicclash The competition is open to anyone who lives or is educated in Kent aged between 11 and 18.

The competition is open to any solo artist or groups from any type of musical genre who can play an original piece of music (no covers). Log onto musicclash.kent.gov.uk, and upload a film of an original composition. Please note that anyone under the age of 16 has to obtain parental or guardian consent.

Entries close at 10am on Monday 21 March. Winners are announced on Tuesday 5 April at which time the new 'winners' site will go live, showing the five winners - as well as the archive of all the participants.