Battle

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For Battle news see below... From: London, UK Label: Transgressive Records Albums: Debut album due in September 2006 Singles: Children (Transgressive), June 12th 2006 (watch teaser video below) Tendency (Transgressive), March 13th 2006* (Cross The Pond Pick) Demons/Damascus (Transgressive), September 26th 2005 Isabelle/Feel The Same (Fierce Panda), April 25th 2005

NME led their recent Radar profile of Battle with the headline, New Gob On The Block. “Roll over Johnny Borrell”, announced Mark Beaumont. “There’s a new King Gob in town and his name is Jason Bavanandan.” Rewind two months, and the magazine was describing Battle’s live performance as “predictable”. As is often the case with the UK’s finest exporters of hyperbole, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Sure, when front man Bavanandan isn’t cutting an intense figure on stage, he’s prone to have the odd pop at the Editors or Kaiser Chiefs of this world. But he’s no Johnny Borrell. Likewise, his band may be torchbearers of the anthemic pop song, but they’re no Coldplay. If anything, Battle have more in common with The Bends, than X & Y.


Battle have been honing a penchant for the epic, for quite some time now. Jason went to school with guitarist Jamie Ellis and by the time the two graduated to university, their one goal was to start a band. Tim Scuddar was brought in on bass, and Ollie Davies on drums. The fruit of their university labours was the indie music grail of a Fierce Panda released debut single.


Their debut release ‘Isabelle’, has been followed by three more single releases on another sought after indie home, Transgressive Records. Tendency snuck into the UK top 40, but under a World Cup cloud, Children just missed out. Battle’s yet to be titled debut album will undoubtedly make a greater dent on the album chart in September. Let’s just look forward to the NME’s next verdict.


Sound a bit like: U2’s finer moments, Coldplay’s finer moments, Radiohead toying between ‘Pablo Honey’ and ‘The Bends’.


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For more:

Battle Website

Battle on Myspace

Battle on Wikipedia



Watch Battle's video for Demons







Watch this video for Battle's single Children below.