91Èȱ¬

Over 11,000 bands entered the Surfaced Unsigned Festival, the biggest competition for label-less groups in the UK.

"Our only goal was to get to the regional finals... so to win it we were pretty surprised."

Listen: Interview with The Chairmen

91Èȱ¬ Leicester's Chris Highton caught up with the band following their crowning as unsigned champions. Plus listen to their track 'Kiss and Run' played live in out studios...

The Hinckley bandÌýhave been together for 18 months, and are enthusiastic about their local roots:

"We always say [we're from] Leicester – we're proud of it!"

Strong Fan Base

In a short space of time The Chairmen and the indie anthems they produce have become very popular on the local music circuit, building up a dedicated fan base.

Around 140 people from Leicestershire turned out to support them through the national competition, "that was an achievement in itself to be fair!"

The band are now looking towards their future, taking a bit ofÌý time off to write new material, find a manager and of course plan how best to constructively spend their £3,000 prize money:

"There's still a long way to go to be where we want to be, it's going to be hard work but we know sort of the direction we need to be going generally."