UC band makes it to finals of MTV awards

Graham Robinson

7 August 2008: University of Canberra students who are The Magic Hands have defied the odds and made it through to the finals of the MTV Kickstart Awards.

The Magic Hands

Kickstart is a national band search competition run by MTV and open to all bands not currently signed to a major label. The competition attracted entries from over 700 bands Australia-wide.

Manager of The Magic Hands, Anna Wallace said, "The competition is a brilliant initiative and will literally give the band a kickstart in the industry by giving them all the tools necessary to break into the music industry.”

The Magic Hands are well known on the Canberra music scene and have recently supported the Midnight Juggemaughts farewell Australia tour. The Magic Hands are founding members and principle songwriters Matt Keeley and Andrew Long along with Tim Dyer, Tom Smith and Frank Aloe.

The Magic Hands will compete against four other NSW bands in the Sydney final on the 5th of September. Each band gets to play two songs with the winner of each heat to have a video clip of their performance posted on the MTV Kickstart home page.

The eventual winner of the Kickstart competition will be voted for by the public who view the MTV homepage and cast their vote. Whoever has the most support will take out the MTV Kickstart award for 2008.