It has emerged today that contrary the the rules governing the voting system of Xfm's Rock School, certain individuals have been making multiple votes.  Such unfair voting has rendered the poll useless and the voting system has had to be changed. Three Chiswick based bands are in the competition but they are not believed to be among those groups mainly responsible for the scrapping of the original poll.

An Xfm spokesperson states "Firstly we have to thank all the bands who submitted demo's for the Xfm Rock School contest and everyone who voted on the website over the weekend.

But as you may know from listening to Christian O'Connell on the Xfm Breakfast Show this morning, we've had to abandon the online vote that took place over the weekend as we found out that despite the rules stating "one vote per person" that some multiple voting took place. So we've decided to replace the online vote with a new text vote taking place tomorrow - Tuesday November 23."

By way of explanation, Christian O'Connell says "Well I should've been announcing the top five bands this morning but late last night the boss rang and told me that multiple voting had taken pace and therefore the vote wasn't fair. This competition was about promoting young rock talent in this country and we wanted a fair way to find the best five bands to play live on the show this week. The vote over the weekend hasn't been fair.

"So the next fairest way of doing the vote is by texting. Then we can safeguard a fair vote. One vote per person. One vote to rule them all.

"Tomorrow morning from 6am to 6pm you can vote for your favourite band. Just text ROCK and your favourite band name to 83XFM.

"We have had to do this even though I know loads of bands bust a gut promoting the vote and did extra gigs for their campaign, but there is no way I wanted to let five bands go through who didn't really deserve it.  Good luck!" 

So, listen to all the entries here and vote for your favourite Rock School band by texting ROCK and your favourite band’s name to 83XFM between 6.00am and 6.00pm Tuesday November 23.

You will only be charged the standard price of a text from your phone service provider. The top five bands will be announced on Xfm's breakfast show on Wednesday November 24 at 8.00am.  

November 23, 2004