INTO the grand final of the Fibbers/ Evening Press Battle of the Bands charge The Xenith Sound, High Sound, Soberskin, The Hair and Fado Rock next Wednesday in York.

In the unofficial Fibbers betting, the first semi-final winner, The Xenith Sound, and second highest-scoring runner-up High Sound, have been installed as joint favourites; second semi-final victor Soberskin are 4/1; third semi winner The Hair stand at 6/1; and highest-scoring runner up Fado Rock are the outsiders at 10/1.

Tickets are selling out so fast at £5 that none will be available on the door. "They'll all have gone by the weekend, so the best advice is to come down here as soon as possible to buy yours," says Fibbers manager Tim Hornsby.

On Grand Final night, Fibbers' doors will open at 7.30pm and by midnight the winner of the top prize of £1,000 and recording time at the Cube Media studios will be decided by a judging panel from the music industry.

The running order will be decided on the evening.

Into the hat go The Xenith Sound, a Leeds act with a thing for samples and Led Zep riffs; High Sound, a York band that the usually eloquent Tim deems "difficult to describe"; Soberskin, from Leeds, with their electronica fusion of OMD and the Chemical Bros; The Hair, a new guitar pop act with a couple of potent ballads; and Fado Rock, a young York rock outfit who burst on to the scene only six months ago.

"I think this is one of the strongest Grand Final line-ups for a long time, a great mixture of experience and youth," says Tim.

Updated: 10:08 Friday, July 04, 2003