Newtown are Battle Of The Bands champions

Participating bands are required to demonstrate the ability to market and manage themselves, and are scored on how well they do these activities. While the competition is not genre specific, musicality and performance are heavily weighted categories, with bands' conduct and professionalism both backstage and onstage also being taken into account, as well as audience votes.

Newtown's eclectic mix of soul, rock, funk and Afro-beat, has already become familiar to many on the local music scene, as well as their live shows. The seven-piece band released their debut album, "The Bridge", in 2010, and their single, I'm OK, was used for the most recent Nissan X-Trail TV ad, currently airing across numerous stations in South Africa.

Rich haul of prizes

A rich haul of prizes was up for grabs this year, including R20 000 in cash, a two-week tour put together by competition organisers Authentic Ideas, a professional photoshoot, website design and hosting for a year, branded merchandise, a live DVD recording and a branded equipment trailer.

Pebbles, Newtown's front woman, said: "We're thrilled to be the overall winners of the Durex Ultimate Battle Of The Bands. The competition encouraged us to develop our stage performance both sonically and visually, so we put in a lot of rehearsal time, which we can thankfully say has paid off. It also provided us with a platform to reach audiences that might not otherwise have been exposed to our music. We went into the competition determined to give it our all, and winning is an affirmation that we are on the right track and destined for bigger and better things."

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