We wanted to go out on a high – to draw a line under ten years of our Band Blitz competition with an enthusiastic final, some cracking new bands and the real buzz that comes when you are faced by raw, untamed, fresh vibrant new talent.

And on Friday night, we got our wish, when the tenth annual new music competition – a co-promotion with The Pitz venue – rocked to the very last!

Five bands had already impressed the clan of judges enough to win a place in the final, and those groups – Rise Inside, Stanislav, Acacia Close, The Vision and Altersketch – had all upped the ante in a bid to take the last ever title.

Which meant that those people who had snapped up tickets for the event were given true value for money, and that the judges – who were gargantuan in number – had a head-scratching time working out the prizes!

But Acacia Close proved the overall winner and took the title. Their response? Singer Mike told us: "We are so surprised that we won the final ever Band Blitz and can't stress enough how thankful we are to everyone who came down and supported such a brilliant event.

"We'd like to thank all the other bands for putting on a great show and showing the high level of talent MK has."

"We haven't officially released any music, but will be at the end of the year – a free download via our MySpace page as a thank you for everyone's support.

"The tracks will be recorded by Neema of Fell Silent thanks to the studio time we won, and also our good friend and early musical inspiration Keith from Capdown."

Rise Inside were equally pleased with their runner-up placing: "We loved every minute of it, and were more than happy to come second. That's good enough for us," said Manny.

Altersketch were happy with the chance to put their alt-class before a rabid, large crowd: "Our performance showed the judges and our audience the energy and power that we display as a unit on stage," Simon reflected.

The Vision have some work ahead now – they sbagged the job of producing a piece of music for MK Dons TV.

"We are incredibly proud to have been a part of the last ever Band Blitz grand final and had such a wonderful night! We are very pleased to be doing a song for the MK Dons and can't wait to get to work on it," Steve from the band said.

LJ from Stanislav hit the right chord with Joel Manan from Marshall Amplification, who awarded her the prize for most promising guitarist. Naturally, she was thrilled.

"It's really good, I wasn't expecting it…this is like the best thing ever! My amp is so rubbish. Well, not rubbish, but look at that..." she said, clearly pleased as punch. "I really appreciate it.
Drummer Dan added: "It was great playing last, as we'd had a chance to check out all the competition beforehand and decide what it was we needed to do to be in with a chance of winning."

The competition has only been the success that it has, because of the fans and because of the bands working hard on their music, and their skills at promotion to pull the punters.

In some ways, all ten years of the Band Blitz competition seem to have flown by in the blink of an eye.

In the decade since we launched the new music competition with our partners The Pitz, we have sat back and watched some 200 bands pushing their new music before an audience of thousands.

But then, they do say that time flies when you are enjoying yourself, don't they?

Writing this as The X Factor is humming from the TV as a parade of wannabes step forward for their – often cringe-worthy – two minutes of fame. The Band Blitz mightn't have had a glamorous judging panel, and our teeth sure as hell aren't as white as Simon Cowell's but we started sniffing out our own talent long before the tiresome parade of tedious telly twaddle 'make me a star' shows began to infest the small screen.

Our bands mightn't go on to be household names, but they have one thing over their small screen counterparts – Blitz participants can play their own instruments, write their own material and don't need a wardrobe department to tell them how to look.

And guess what? They quite often sustain longer careers than those on the box. We did something right.

"I'll miss this…" one judge screamed into my ear as Rise Inside tore through their set at Friday's grand final. "This is what it's all about isn't it? Unearthing new bands, and the buzz…"

Spot on.