Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Southampton Final Gustav Vs Reeps 1

Its taken some time, but here’s the report on the first Southampton Secret Wars Final. Gustav Vs Reeps 1!!

Originally when setting the dates, I didn’t take into account that the huge Southampton student population would be away because of the long, long Easter break. It wasn’t until the actual day of setting up that I realised it was a bit of a ghost town. I actually saw some tumbleweed roll passed the Soul Cellar. Needless to say the toilet and I became great, close friends as nerves began to take over me.

All was set and ready to go, I was adamant it wasn’t going to be busy. Everywhere else was dead, Zombified…extinct! I wish I could say it was down to luck, or thanks to a number of prayers made whilst on the toilet. But the truth of the matter is Secret Wars has developed a huge following resulting in a packed out venue. Students had come all the way back especially for this and artists from previous stages turned up to see who would be crowned winner. Would it be Gustav who reached the final through SU1 and Zadok or would it be Reeps 1 who debuted his edding fighting skills in the Southampton Wars??

Nobody can say there was one clear favourite, each artist had to battle hard knowing that if the judges came up with a draw, their fate would lie with an even crowd shout. Of course C-Monts was in control of the flow, again displaying why he’s such a favourite with the Secret Wars camp. Mr Muffle and DJ R-Kid kept the tempo going as it seemed pretty even on the boards.

After the 90 min and after a few extra seconds to mop up the sweat (We at Secret Wars believe in Health and Safety) the judges were announced. Mary Allen (Manager of Addict, Brighton and illustrator) and of course Seeds from Birmingham’s Secret Wars. The first vote rested with Mary – GUSTAV!!! The second vote went to…wait for it…..REEPS 1!!!

This meant the controversial clap-o-meter had to come out. However I can honestly say despite Gustav being on home turf, Reeps had impressed and captured the hearts of the audience throughout the tournament….awww, it’s like a Disney moment. So this wasn’t going to be an easy victory for anyone.

C-Monts built up the tension, tighter than Jackie Stallone’s face-lift! The first cheers were for Reeps – a high score. The second bout of cheers for Gustav were a little bit higher, meaning Gustav was crowned the Southampton Secret Wars winner!!

This had been a great start to which will lead onto Series 2. We’d like to thank everyone that followed it and supported what we were doing and a big shout out to the all the guys from Birmingham that came down, to our sponsors, to the guys at Soul cellar who let us get paint on their lovely floor, Lloyd for making the set up and cooking me food when I got hungry, Terry for coming up with the idea and of course to ME!

Until the next series…. ciao for now

PEACE!









Seeds gets the crowd going!!!


VOILA!!! GUSTAV ON THE LEFT, REEPS ON THE RIGHT

1 comment:

Kyle Von Brown said...

haha looks like a sick time man, im one of the students that dwell in a small town just outside of Southampton, Winchester for the duration of university and i headed home (bristol) to get a grasp on some final year work so was a real big shame to miss this! but am hoping to check out a few more of these gigs at a later date as i have had an awesome time at them in the past.


http://kylevonbrown.blogspot.com/