THE air may have been cool, but the battling bands at Fibbers were scorching hot.

The narrowest of margins separated the contenders last night in the third of the second-round heats of this year's Battle of the Bands competition in York.

Fibbers' newly-installed air conditioning couldn't chill the sweaty excitement of the youthful audience, and the tension as the votes were counted was almost palpable.

In the end, The Lieutenants snatched victory from Paragon and The Red Room Theory by a miniscule margin.

The Lieutenants came out all guns blazing, four fresh-faced young men with ersatz khaki uniforms and boundless energy.

A shamelessly crowd-pleasing cover - yes, I'm looking at you, Teenage Kicks - as well as some perfectly respectable home-grown punk made for an enjoyably frenetic set.

Charismatic lead singer (or should that be commander-in-chief?) Mathew Baker again and again flung himself unto the breach with gusto, and delivered ten cracking songs.

The Lieutenants clearly have the enthusiasm and, crucially, the local fan base to go far in this competition.

The battle was no rout, though. Three-piece Paragon were next to play, and they more than held their own with some thoughtful, mature, good old fashioned rock.

A sort of Three Colours Red without the warbling angst, Paragon were, well, paragons.

The Lincoln-based band started the night 8/1 favourites, and they certainly did everything they could to live up to those odds.

Big-haired frontman Hugh Jones, now a student at York Uni, was a natural on-stage, and the band's serious guitar-work drove home several outstanding tunes.

Indeed, the only blemish was an ill-advised Craig David cover that sent shivers down the spine. Give me The Undertones any day.

Last up were The Red Room Theory.

Looking back over my notes, there's only a single, huge exclamation mark next to their name.

That probably just about sums it up.

Noisy, angry, and more than a little scary, the Theory rocked not only Fibbers but probably the Jorvik caf, the Supersave department store and the Stonebow bus shelters too.

There may have been a melody in there somewhere, but it was buried under thousands of watts of maximum rock. The audience loved it.

In the end, just six votes separated The Lieutenants and The Red Room Theory, out of 159 ballots cast.

The Lieutenants' victory was a narrow one. Good work, gentlemen. Medals and field promotions all round.