A band from the University of Sussex have made the final ten of the Student Beans Battle of the Bands, a competition set up to find the best student band in the UK. The announcement that Kinnie The Explorer made the top ten was made on 17 November.
With over 145 entries from universities and higher education colleges all over the UK, the ten best bands will now go head to head to reach the final. The three bands with the highest votes will play at a gig at The Luminaire in London on 13 December in front of a live audience and music industry experts, where one of the bands will be crowned the winner.
Kinnie The Explorer first came onto the scene last summer when they supported Noah and the Whale on several of their UK tour dates.
The band is made up of friends, Kit Vincent who plays drums, Peter Lanceley, vocalist and guitarist, and guitarist Olly Porter and bassist Will Porter are brothers. Speaking of how the band first got together, Lanceley said: “Kit and myself used to spend a lot of time there and when we started playing music on a regular basis and had a few song ideas, we thought we’d form the band.”
Since the band supported Noah and the Whale, they have been going from strength to strength performing and developing their own unique brand of thought-provoking post-punk/indie. The quartet, which boasts members from the Universities of Sussex, Brighton and Bournemouth, are influenced by bands such as The National, Girls and Four Tet.
Peter Lanceley is a first-year undergraduate here at the University of Sussex studying Philosophy. To vote for the band, visit http://www.studentbeans.com/battleofthebands/kinnie-the-explorer.html.