For Edward Bannard, teenage lead frontman with Nottinghamshire outfit Born Laid, going back to his roots has had a nice impact on his musical career. Adopted as a child, Irish-born Edward was raised in the UK, but returned to Dublin in June of this year to meet his natural parents. In the midst of this, the nineteen-year-old had the presence of mind to circulate some of his bands demos and enter a couple of upcoming Irish band competitions.

Upon receiving a callback from the organisers of the hotpress Ignition Unsigned competition, Born Laid travelled over to Dublin s Temple Bar Music Centre a few weeks later, where they won their initial heat, and then came back to conquer in the final a month later.
Of that winning performance, Edward says, We really seemed to connect on the night everything just went right for us. We did an acoustic set in the middle of the gig, which is kind of soothing, and really gets the songs across to the audience. We weren t expecting to get such a good reaction from the Dublin crowd, what with us being from England and all!
Born Laid were formed in the Midlands four years ago when Edward jammed with schoolfriends, Luke Cooper (guitar), Tom Read (bass) and Dan Wright (drums). Since then, they ve been gigging away on the UK circuit, with two EP s under their belt, and songs reminiscent of the Stone Roses and the whole Manchester scene, and more varied artists like Weller, Bowie and Dylan.
The warm Irish welcome they ve received means plenty of frequent flyer miles for the band, We have until January to make use of the three days of free recording time we won, so although it can be a problem for all of us to travel over together, we ll definitely be back, Edward promises.
Since their last triumphant outing here, Dublin venues are primed to receive them, so Born Laid will get plenty of opportunity to boost their Celtic connections.
Dublin is quite small and all the clubs and venues are close together, which helps a band to build up a following. In England, it tends to be all about the money, and it s hard to get the right people to come to your gigs, the singer adds. The worst gig I remember was once when we travelled 150 miles to London to play at a band competition. About five acts were supposed to take part but no-one else showed up. We played anyway and were declared automatic winners by default, but that s certainly not how we wanted to win!
Well, Dublin just does it better, I suppose.