Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds

Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds was an annual national rock/pop band competition held in Australia from 1966 to 1972. The winners of the national finals were the Twilights (1966), the Groop (1967), the Groove (1968), Doug Parkinson in Focus (main, 1969) and the Affair (vocal group, 1969), the Flying Circus (1970), Fraternity (1971) and Sherbet (1972).

Australia's Battle of the Sounds was originally established by Australian tabloid magazine Everybody's in 1965 as a talent quest for new unsigned bands in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

The National Battle of the Sounds gained significant credibility and attracted many of Australia's top pop outfits when, in 1966, confectioner Hoadley's assumed sponsorship and it took the full name of "Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds" for the first time. Go-Set magazine took over the co-ordination role and local radio stations all over Australia organised local heats. This turned it into a truly national competition. Heats were held in the capital cities and country towns and bands worked their way up through semi-finals to one penultimate grand-final, held in either Melbourne or Sydney.

The valuable first prize was a full return passage to England on the Sitmar cruise line, two booked concerts in London and $1000 prize money, later upped to $2000 and return flights to Los Angeles (early winners did not get the concerts).

1969 was the peak year of the battle with over 1000 bands entering and two Grand Finals, one for full bands and one for groups and singing groups that specialised in harmony vocals. Over the years the battle would see such quality acts as The Groove and Sherbet taking out the major prize. Many other prominent outfits that would go on to greater success competed in the Battle until its conclusion in 1972.

In July 1966 Canberra-based group the Roadrunners won the New South Wales final for country groups. The judges were radio and TV representatives and the audience cheering was so loud that they had to call back the band to perform again. The prizes for winning the national final were $1000, a trip to England and a recording contract. Another ACT group, Rain, won their heat in July 1968 and flew to the national final in Melbourne – they were farewelled at the airport by two fans. The national final winner, the Twilights, performed a medley: "Bad Boy", "Satisfaction", "Yesterday", "If she finds out" and "I'm not talkin", at Melbourne's Festival Hall. The tracks were later included on their album, Twilight Time (1983), via Raven Records.

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