This article was published in 2007.

Sandman Magazine have this week revealed the first ten bands that will appear on the Unsigned Stage at the Carling Weekend: Leeds Festival 2007.

With a few hundred bands from throughout the North of England keen to play in front of thousands at the annual event, all thoughts in the last week were on which ten would be selected.

The standard was high, the competition fierce, and the odds stacked against.

Sandman Magazine whittled the numbers down from hundreds to 40, and a further round got this down to a final thirty. The thirty remaining CDs were put to a panel of judges including Clint Boon (XFM Manchester); Jane Kitson (Radio Sheffield), Penny Blackham (Sheffield Union Ents), Dave Sugden (LMS); Whiskas (Dance to the Radio); and Rupert Dell (The Leadmill).

After a fortnight of deliberation, the panel (through anonymous voting) jointly decided upon the following ten bands to represent Sandman Magazine, and the North of England, at the festival – Grammatics, The Scaramanga Six, Whiskycats, Piskie Sits, Thirty Pounds of Bone, Working for a Nuclear Free City, This Floating World, Neil McSweeney, Screaming Mimi, and Bone-Box.