Bands given chance to win support slot on Fireball tour

Last year's winners Sweet Little Machine
Last year's winners Sweet Little Machine

Local bands from across the UK have the chance to win a support slot with Reel Big Fish, Anti-Flag and Mad Caddies this October on the Fireball - Fuelling The Fire Tour.

Academy Events in association with Fireball are running their annual competition which will reward bands with the chance to play they home town on the tour, which gets under way at the O2 Ritz in Manchester on October 11.

Interested artists are asked to visit the competition’s homepage and fill in the forms, explaining why your band should open in your home town.

Entries will be taken until August 21, with the nine bands chosen by a panel of music industry experts given a 20-minute slot on the tour. The overall winner will be crowned Fireball’s Hottest Band.

Sheffield pop-punk outfit Sweet Little Machine clinched the top spot last year – and as part of their prize, will head out on this year’s tour.

The band say: “We’d definitely recommend to anyone to enter, because the platform that Fireball and Academy Events have been able to offer us opened up all of these doors to get our music out to a wider audience.

“All these tours have been a wonderful experience and you can really tell that your fan base is growing while you’re doing it all, which is amazing.”

Find a full list of Fuelling The Fire dates below along with a video trailer. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster.

Fireball - Fuelling The Fire 2017 UK tour dates

Oct 11: Manchester O2 Ritz
Oct 12: Bristol O2 Academy
Oct 13: Leicester O2 Academy
Oct 15: Leeds O2 Academy
Oct 16: London O2 Kentish Town
Oct 17: London O2 Kentish Town
Oct 18: Newcastle O2 Academy
Oct 19: Glasgow O2 Academy
Oct 20: Liverpool O2 Academy (No Anti-Flag)
Oct 21: Sheffield O2 Academy (No Anti-Flag)

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Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent 35 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott keeps Louder’s buyer’s guides up to date, writes about the best deals for music fans, keeps on top of the latest tech releases and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 10 years, Scott has written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald newspapers, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.