THE SURVIVAL OF the fittest rule that applies to most live music scenes has been turned on its head in Hong Kong this year. In what may represent an unthawing after the Sars-induced deep freeze of the entertainment industry last year, it's been an unusually active 10 months.
Recently we've had: the Warehouse Teenage Band Competition in Aberdeen; heats of the World Battle of the Bands; the Heart Beat Band Competition at the Hong Kong Comic Fair; the Soundbase Festival Acoustic Band Competition; and then there's this weekend's Yamaha Asian Beat Band Competition.
It appears that, instead of weeding out the unworthy, the flood of competitions is injecting life into a growing band community - encouraging large numbers of fresh, young outfits to step forward and be heard.
'I've always believed that there's talent in Hong Kong, but they're never recognised because of the music scene here,' says Irene Sit, a pioneer of the band scene who started Hong Kong's first competition, the Carlsberg Music Festival, in 1983.
Sit now runs Puffin Entertainment, which spearheads the annual Rock On showcase concerts. 'If we don't give these new bands something to work on then we're going to lose these talents,' she says.
On Sunday, dozens of bands will unleash their sounds at the Yamaha Asian Beat competition, organised in Hong Kong by the Tom Lee Music Foundation. According to Tom Lee president Frank Lee, the number of entries this year supports the argument that the local scene is growing.
