School pals at final frontier

Apr 15 2009 by Gregor White, Stirling Observer Wednesday

A LOCAL band formed at Wallace High School have been voted through to the Scottish finals of a competition that could see them break into the global music scene.

The Colony have been playing together since 2006 when members Aaron and Rikki Hobkirk, Roddy McKenzie and Brian Miller were all pupils at Wallace High.

Originally formed for the local annual school Battle of the Bands, it didn’t take them long to realise they wanted to press on and see how much further they could go.

Claiming influences that range from Metallica to T-Rex the heavy rock group began to write their own material and even produced their own EP – with a second to follow and a third currently in the works.

They were soon joined by fifth member Aaron Burnett, who took on the role of lead singer just before the band appeared at the Scribbler’s Picnic charity fundraiser in Stirling last year.

Going on to pick up more gigging opportunities at numerous venues in Glasgow and Edinburgh as well as in their home town of Stirling, possibly their biggest break to date has now come with their outstanding performance in the Emergenza competition.

In an international battle of the bands, decided by public vote, The Colony have emerged victorious in the two rounds to date and are now set to play in the Scottish final at Glasgow’s O2 Academy on May 16.

“Through the countless number of shows we have done the band has started to get a following and we now have some hardcore fans that come to every show we play,” said Aaron Hobkirk, the band’s lead guitarist.

“We owe our success in the Emergenza competition so far to these die hard fans, as without them we would not have got through the first round.”

Even more encouraging for the group, however, has been the new fans they seem to have picked up along the way.

Aaron said: “The bands have the opportunity to sell tickets for the competition gigs themselves and we managed to shift 53 for the semi-final recently, but picked up 70 votes on the night.

“We sold about 40 for the first round and scored 63 votes there which suggests that we’re winning people round on the night, which is great”.

Tickets priced £9 each for the final, which kicks off at 7pm on Saturday, May 16, are available direct from The Colony at myspace.com/thecolonyrock, on their bebo page or at the venue on the night.