Kunk / Ornate Purpose
Week 4 - 10th March 2005
By Sharkey

Well it’s that time of the week again where I spend several hours of my time drinking, taking photos and making fun of this weeks bands. This week I point my laughing stick at Kunk and Ornate Purpose.

This has defiantly been the best turnout for Battle of the Bands to date, hundreds of people turning out for this weeks event. Even a huge crowd rush to the stage but I’ll get onto that later, first off:

Kunk - The four piece band kicked straight off into action with a variety of original songs. It’s interested to note that the legendary John Peel picked several of their songs to be played from their demo CD.

They definitely put a lot of effort into their playing and the songs were well put together into the set. Blending each song together well, although some minor messing about and tuning between songs sounded a bit bad.

They’re actual sound was quite diverse. Stretching at some point to an almost Emo/Rock sound with a blending of Foo Fighters, Placebo and Soundgarden. It was hard to tell as they were originals, you can never tell what the band were really intending for the song at a live venue.

However they had some recorded demo CD’s going away free! “Free CD’s for the moshers” they shouted out. This immediately got a small crowd up for them (including my colleague Jo the Mofo, bless, mosh the moderator). “Is everybody drunk” shouted the bassist at one point to which the crowd roared a big yes. Up to that point the crowd interaction had been quite minimal but now they had their attention.

Nearer the end of their set the songs got a bit more aggressive, attracting more moshers up going full scale into each other (brings back memories).

The bands setup had a nice sound coming out of it. Nothing coming out too much and everyone putting full effort into the playing. Although I thought they could have put more into their performance, they didn’t seem to do anything other than play the music. Not anything that had the wow factor I was looking for (as their reputation had proceeded them). But definitely a good local band.

Ornate Purpose - When I heard that Ornate Purpose were a bunch of school kids I thought “Hey, I’ll give them a chance, seeing as they are only kids and all, maybe encourage the crowd a bit more than I usually do”. Hell, I didn’t need too.

As soon as they started sound checking, a huge cheer erupted from the crowd and a huge surge of people ran to the dance floor, it was covered. Massive screams and cheers went up when they had finished the sound check. I think everyone was surprised that this massive crowd had managed to appear from thin air to show their support for Ornate Purpose.

Let’s face it, when we hear that a school band is going to be playing we immediately turn our noses up at them, but the professionalism that this band showed was amazing. They were young but their age didn’t show.

They played a set of covers (and an original or two) which could have been taken directly from any Best Of Rock CD. Playing known tracks such as Paranoid, Smoke On The Water, Smells Like Teen Spirit and Layla (which was the best I’ve heard that song played live). Even going into Summer of 69, but I didn’t hold it against them.

The lead singer was very up-front and direct to the crowd, despite the majority of them being school friends and people he knew. That takes a lot of courage to be able to sing and perform in front of people you know. He even went into classic rock star mode by throwing plectrums out to the crowd.
The lead guitarist managed to pull off the songs well and they all posed nicely for the crowd and camera. A very good energy about them. But at some points they did falter in the performance. Especially at the beginning of Teen Spirit when the drummer started playing the wrong beat.

You could tell the band were enjoying themselves though, frequent smiles and nods to the crowd as they lapped up the momentary fame (enjoy it while it lasts). Now if they came up with a set full of original songs then I think this band would defiantly be a storm in the east anglian region. They have the personality, the fan-base and the talent, now they just need the inspiration to write some new songs.

Well that’s all from me this week, i'm off to continue my campaign (Ban the Whale) and my usual escapades, see you next week people!

Jo writes:

So the girl I chatted up on Monday at PJ’s unceremoniously ditched me last night… but that was the only bum note in an otherwise brilliant evening – my most enjoyable BOTB this year so far.
Kunk were, in the wise words of my good mate Loz, “a bit of a hardcore-y version of Busted,” and their hummable originals certainly did the trick for a few dancing fans. An obviously experienced band, they presented themselves well with very proficient musicianship (sometimes in short supply around here!) and the lead singer did an ace job, keeping good eye-contact and interacting with his band members as well as the audience – again, how common is that? I would have liked to hear a little more stylistic variation in their songs, but I may yet change my mind on listening to their CD. Nice one Mum, sitting there handing them out!

**Mr Burns voice** Excellent! - Caz

Then, oh then, something very strange happened, my people. A veritable horde of mini-moshers got up off their collective behind and crowded the stage. And about time too. Ornate Purpose definitely bigged up the Lynn Grove posse, to amazing effect. The screaming didn’t stop for the entire set – it’s astonishing how much difference a fanbase makes. The boys were beaming, and still had time to show a little sportsmanship for their counterparts Kunk, which is always nice to see. I must say, they’ve improved so much from when I heard them onstage in assembly a year-ish ago.
To be fair, they did play a very crowd-pleasing set, mostly covers from before they were born… and why not? Teen Spirit was the only one, however, that nagged at me, as I personally believe that bloody song’s been done to death. There should have been more originals, certainly, but the two or three that showed themselves were well executed. The guitar soloing was jaw-dropping and the singing mostly spot-on, and although they’re young I wish them all the best. The new Faded Theory? You bet!

They’re not the new Faded Theory!! – Allen, Faded Theory
f**kin’ brilliant! – Sarah

Mark Nichols writes:

We kicked off this week with ‘Kunk’. Their hard rock image took no time to radiate into their performance with the use of some booming vocals graced with plenty of originals. ‘Kunk’ stuck at their task well with a variety of performances with the three front men sharing the vocals frequently. After getting the crowd more involved and publicly announcing the sale of some of their tracks in the hall I was amazed to see one land on my table just minutes after the announcement which shows the damn right dedication of this group.

With great talent and will power; I think this band can go a long way on the music circuit. However, I just felt that the addition of a few more covers would have made their push into the next round a little easier for them. 

Just before the next band was due to perform there was an aurora of excitement that was felt by everyone inside the hall as the crowd rushed to the front of the piazza. Revealed behind the curtains were the young 4 piece rock band ‘Ornate Purpose’.

The incredible large fan base they brought along with them helped them to get on their way successfully. At first I thought they were just young rock wannabes but I soon realised they had great ability. With classic tracks from Iron Maiden, and Metallica they really gave out a strong vibe. At one point the lead singer was given a blow up guitar from the audience and with the help of his fellow guitarist gave out an air guitar style performance. I was amazed at the sheer talent of these young stars giving their all. Unfortunately a bit of inexperience came through with the lead singer getting a bit ahead of himself with the vocals a couple of times, but you expect small mistakes like these to happen especially with how young the band members actually are.

With Blurs "song 2" the lead singer waved his microphone towards the crowd who gave out a deafening response to him; all of which goes into their favour when the judges give points on crowd reaction. A great performance and worthy to go through to the next round but for me the performance was marred slightly by the throwing of objects on the stage. At one point an object which to me looked liked a lighter was thrown directly at the lead singers head, this could of have turned out quite nasty. All in all a great night, well done to both bands involved.

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