Mister Kite from Salisbury have won BBC Wiltshire's third annual Battle of the Bands contest.

Read our review of the night.

On Thursday July 29th at The Furnace nightclub in Swindon, BBC Wiltshire's annual Battle of the Bands contest rolled around for another year.

This time, the six bands voted into the final by our site visitors made up possibly the most diverse line-up yet, and once again, the judges were going to have a very hard time picking a winner.

The Gramercy Riffs

'The UK's best unsigned band' proclaim The Gramercy Riffs on their website. Perhaps a slightly cocksure boast from the band who kicked off the night, as their set consisted of a highly competent but wholly conventional collection of indie rock workouts.

A tightening of song structure and a healthy dose of stage presence may one day see their claim become reality.

Paul Yallop from Vector

BBC Radio Wiltshire's Kelly Stooke once again compéred the event and every time she mentioned the next band's name, from the cheers it was obvious who had brought the most fans with them.

For a three-piece, Swindon heavy rockers Vector make a deeply impressive noise and singer-guitarist Steve Thompson effortlessly proved his exemplary guitar skills.

Their Muse meets The Police sound triggered the first and wildest moshpit of the night.

Third on the bill were The Hour. Hard to believe these guys hail from Swindon when their sound is so authentically American country-roots rock.

Onze from The Hour

Singer Onze has a soulful, honeyed voice that could bring a tear to the eye of even the most hardened biker. Their final song held the crowd spellbound with the unrelenting emotional punch of the 'I've Made up My Mind' chorus hook.

Next band up, Salisbury boys Mister Kite had never played Swindon before and nearly missed this gig. Singer Matt Rowe sported a nasty scar on his neck from a recent throat operation and was only given the all clear to play a few days previously.

No one would have guessed however as the band hit the ground running with a piledriving set of punchy melodic zeitgeist-friendly rock songs.

Matt Rowe from Mister Kite

It's fair to say this band really have the lot - image, presence and crucially the songs to make them the next NME poster boys.

The wonderful thing about events such as this is when they take a 360° turn, and this was never more the case than when Caffeine Kill stepped up. It was like all the lights in the club dimmed and a comedy clap of thunder echoed over the venue.

Caffeine Kill

These guys meant business. They pushed technology to the limit to deal out leaden slabs of intimidating electro metal punctured by angst-ridden wailing.

Scary, but strangely compelling!

One more band to go and the mood was considerably lightened by the teenage pop punk antics of Swindoners Full Fat Milk.

Nathan Dunscombe from Full Fat Milk

Considering how young the band obviously are (the singer's voice has yet to break!) they play like a band ten years older.

The perfect act to round off the night.

After a short break, the four judges - Q and Mojo writer Johnny Black, Drum Company owner Martin D, Alan Holmes from Holmes Music and The Evening Advertiser's Paul Wojciak came onstage to announce the winner.

After members of the crowd shouted out for their favourite band to win it was finally revealed that the judge's choice was.... Mister Kite.

The Salisbury band walked off with a voucher entitling them to £750 worth of musical equipment from Holmes Music and each of the runners-up received a goodie bag containing guitar strings, drum sticks and other freebies.

For the third year running BBC Wiltshire's Battle of the Bands has showcased the cream of the county's best young bands.

BBC Wiltshire would like to thank The Furnace nightclub, the Swindon Evening Advertiser, Holmes Music and the judges for assisting in this year's event. See you again next year!

Daniel Garrett