Leeds College of Music student band provide soundtrack to the new Leeds Arena

Leeds College of Music student/alumni band Escort Knights have won a competition to produce a special soundtrack for the new Leeds Arena which is due to open in 2012.  In spring 2010, the Leeds Arena Project held a competition for local unsigned artists to have their music as the soundtrack for an animation showing the Leeds Arena in action. The animation will also showcase the ‘super-theatre’ design of the Leeds Arena and will be used in key marketing materials. The competition generated huge interest from local artists and the standard of submissions was extremely high. Ultimately, judges were wowed by Escort Knights’ energetic track, I Don’t Know Your Name and this was selected as the winner. The four-piece are made up of Ewan Santer (26), Jonathan Doherty (26), Alex Blomley (19) and Joe Montague (21). All are graduates or current students at Leeds College of Music, and met whilst studying here. They describe their sound as Indie-House and have been touring regionally and nationally promoting their track. They have played in cities such as Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow and Edinburgh and have been invited to play at various high profile music venues and nightclubs in London, most recently at the Camden Barfly. They have played at various venues in Leeds, especially at Leeds Cockpit where they took part in the Futuresound competition, supported Starman and where they will be playing again on September 16th. Councillor Richard Lewis, Leeds City Council's executive board member for city development, said: "We are delighted to announce Escort Knights as the winners of the Leeds Arena competition. The arena will take the profile of the music scene in Leeds to a whole new level and are delighted that a local band can be involved at this early stage. Their soundtrack will add something really special to the animation and we are sure they will have a really bright future." Jonathan of Escort Knights said: "We are both delighted and proud to be the first band to be associated with the new Leeds arena and a huge project that could give a massive boost to the local music industry. From what we have seen the arena will be incredible. It's a total one-of-its-kind and it's happening right on our doorstep. If we could play at the Leeds arena one day, that would really be the icing on the cake though!" www.myspace.com/escortknights