ROCH Revolution Live stormed the August bank holiday weekend with scores of party revellers taking over Twist in Drake Street to celebrate the best of Rochdale’s unsigned bands.

The Observer event - in aid of our Springhill Hospice appeal - featured the best musicians from across the borough, hand-picked by XFM DJ and Inspiral Carpets keyboard player, Clint Boon.

Opening the show, the Brightsparks launched into ‘Another Wee-kend’ followed by a cheeky melody of quirky tunes.

It was obvious that The Brightsparks had been practising fiercely ahead of the event, with drummer Ben Davis battling through blistered fingers to thrash out the tunes, entertain the crowd and be pulled back on to stage by popular demand for one last encore.

Setting the standard for the night, The Brightsparks were a tough act to follow, but The Microtones proved they were up to the challenge.

Describing their sound as inventive garage-rock and priding themselves on their energetic, raw performances mixing rock with indie and modern blues flavours, The Microtones didn’t disappoint, blowing the crowd away with some intricate guitar riffs and impressive vocals.

Guitarist Andy Syddall said: "The gig was brilliant, when we were on stage the crowd were whooping and clapping after every song, it’s definitely something that we’d like to see happen again in Rochdale."

Wolfgang Radio plugged in to go live with their intense, adrenalin-driven and emotive sound, playing original material including songs ‘Pray for your Sins’, ‘If Looks Could Kill’ and ‘Man can’t wait’, before reaching back to their influences to cover legendary tracks ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ by Radiohead and Nirvana’s ‘Heart Shaped Box’.

They handed over the stage to The Snow Byrds, led by cocky lead singer Chris Byrne. The band with big personalities and catchy tunes had everyone fixated.

Mixing guitar solos with an epic instrumental, the Snow Byrds, who stepped in after a last minute line-up hitch, claimed the slot as their own.

Starting the bank holiday weekend as they intended to go on, The Reveres could be seen throwing some shapes of the Manchester indie dance floors on Friday night and were the last people left strutting their stuff at The Roch Revolution Live on Sunday.

Storming the stage, Sound Stripe headlined the event and finished the show with a bang, blowing their amp in the process.

Bass player Jeni Holt said: "We were thrown a bit by the amp breaking and lost a bit of confidence, but we rescued the set and the night was wicked.

"We definitely hope something like this happens again, it was a really good idea, really successful and hopefully Springhill Hospice have made lots of money."

Roch Revolution Live was sponsored by Hills Packaging Ltd from Lincoln Street Business Park.

Donations to Springhill Hospice are still being counted with the final total to be announced in Saturday’s Observer.

See Wednesday and Saturday's Observers for more pictures