With the final three acts ready to battle it out to find the winners of The Big Chance, a great night of North-East music is anticipated for next week.

More than 50 acts and artists from across the region have entered to win the prize of more than three days in a recording studio and 100 CDs pressed.

Thousands of votes were cast and three finalists have been selected. They are: Eskimo, Stone Coda, and 101.

101 come from Stockton and entered with the track Blame It On The Rain. Eskimo are from Richmond, North Yorkshire, and play at local festivals, including Richmond Live. Their track is You Don't Have To Be Angry.

Stone Coda from Brotton, near Saltburn, east Cleveland, entered the track Give Yourself Away.

A judging panel made up of Colin Paterson, programme director at radio station TFM, Jonathan Burrows and Adam Sayers, of Sanity Multimedia Studio, Stockton, and Michael Atkinson, Revolution web editor, selected ten artists from the 50 entrants.

The ten tracks were put online to let music fans vote to select the three finalists.

Mr Atkinson said: "It's been tough calling people to tell them they are not through to the final. However, the final three scored highly, both with the judges and music fans alike, proving their worth as the finalists for the Big Chance."

The Northern Echo's Big Chance is produced in partnership with TFM Radio and aims to find the region's top unsigned artist.

The winner will be selected by a panel of judges at the play-off concert, on Thursday, June 19, at The Georgian Theatre, Stockton.

Doors open at 7pm and tickets cost £3 at the door. For details and updates, visit www.thisisrevolution.co.uk.