CATB Crowned UK's #1 Unsigned Act

14th July 2012

CoCo and the Butterfields from Canterbury beat more than 10,000 other acts to eventually win the biggest competition for original performers in the UK Live and Unsigned Grand Final on Saturday 14th July.

They performed in front of a sell-out audience at Proud2 within The O2, having their prize presented to them by Radio One DJ Ras Kwame who was judging the event.

Along with other prizes, they will receive £10,000 worth of publicity investment, an animated music video, a band app development and an incredible 18 date summer festival tour including a trip to Tour Fest in Rome. Describing the victory, they claimed “It hasn’t really sunk in yet! We’ve got so much out of the competition... In each round we’ve won something, now we’ve won the whole thing, it’s amazing.”

Along with Ras Kwame, other judges on the day included: Kerrang! Unsigned presenter Alex Baker, Kiss FM Breakfast Presenter Charlie Hedges, NME New Music Editor Matt Wilkinson, one half of Artful Dodger Mark Hill, Universal A&R man Solomon Penumuchi, Metal Hammer’s Dayal Patterson and Si Hulbert who produces for Ed Sheeran & One Direction.

Events Director of Live & Unsigned Chris Grayston commented: “this is a fantastic achievement for CoCo and the Butterfields. They’re definitely the most original winner we’ve ever had. They beat a massive pool of talent on the day to take the £10,000 which they can spend on development as they like. They festival tour will be an incredible experience for them too and a great way of getting their name out there even further!”

CoCo and the Butterfields formed less than a year ago, but have since amassed a huge following both locally and on facebook. They feature a lineup of Dulcima Showan (vocals & violin), Tom Twyman (acoustic guitar & vocals), Jamie Smith (beatbox), Micah Hyson (double bass) and James Todd (banjo), having all met on the Canterbury busking circuit. Despite their increasingly busy gig calendar they are still regularly spotted busking all over the city together, not to mention driving around the South East in their colourful bandwagon, “Ron”.

Their unusual lineup has given rise to their genre-crossing brand of ‘Fip Fok’ (a combination of Hip-Hop, Folk and Pop). The band are committed to breaking down genre barriers by playing catchy originals and inventive covers in a style that everyone can enjoy. It has proven very successful thus far, with local record producer Dan Lucas claiming they have “managed the almost impossible task of creating a sound that is almost entirely unique.” It looks like winning Live and Unsigned may be just the start for the Fip Fok band.

You can catch CoCo and the Butterfields at Stockton Weekender, Strawberry Fields Festival, Relentless Energy Boardmasters, Edinburgh Fringe, Festibelly, Glass Butter Beach, Just So Festival, Bingley Music Live, Brownstock, Sundown, Shrewsbury Fields Forever Festival, Deafbox Fest, Brisfest, London Summer Jam and Lancaster Music Festival.