The Vanity Project from Manchester University crowned winners of iSessions 2016

Left to right: Tom Baker, The Vanity Project winners Flora Jackson and Rob Paterson, Marc Riley and Alice Jones (Colin McPherson)

An experimental duo who perform in bloodstained boiler suits and sing songs about being trans and the difficulty of getting a job won the i’s national student battle of the bands on Monday night.

It was a home win for Manchester University’s The Vanity Project - featuring Rob Paterson, 20, and Flora Jackson, 19 - who beat 68 other bands from 18 universities in the iSessions final at Gorilla, Manchester.

This was only The Vanity Project’s fourth gig; their debut was at the first iSessions heat in November. They describe themselves as a “multi-instrumentalising, loop pedal-driving duo, playing messy, weird, yet poppy music and far more instruments than it’s wise for two people to play.”

Jackson - who identifies as a trans woman - and Paterson grew up in York and have been friends since they were 12-years-old. They perform in white boiler suits - one covered in fake blood, the other in lipstick kisses - that Paterson, a PPE student, pinched from a university drama project.

On Monday night, they performed an eight-minute song about Ireland (‘Antrim’), singing and speaking over guitars, drum machine, cowbell and loop pedal, and another, ‘Graduation Blues’ about the horrors of life after university. “I wrote it quite quickly after sitting down at my computer and looking for jobs for a while. It was terrifying, so I made another cup of tea,” said Paterson. “Every time we play it, the students in the crowd really relate to it.”

Flora Jackson, left, and Rob Paterson, right, of The Vanity Project (Image credit: Colin McPherson) (Colin McPherson)

Five bands performed in the final having won heats at their individual universities where they were then voted through to the top five via an online vote. The panel of judges was formed by BBC Radio 6 Music DJ and former bassist with The Fall, Marc Riley, Tom Baker - founder of London’s Field Day festival - and Alice Jones, deputy arts editor of i.

Lowlanders - a pop punk band from Liverpool University with shades of Busted and piles of raw attitude - were the runners-up. The other three finalists were psychedelic rockers Youthful Fantasy from Leeds, guitar and drum duo Mama’s Kumquat from Newcastle, and folky trio Three Denims from Cardiff.

Riley said of the winners: “The Vanity Project were overly-ambitious, which is the highest compliment I can pay. We’re so used to seeing bands who have no ambition and just follow the path other bands they love have laid down before them.

“They reminded me of Roxy Music in 1972, and they have the courage to wear boiler suits and make-up and come out with their credibility in tact.”

The Vanity Project named, as their influences, Everything Everything. Jackson said: “We just love their whole aesthetic and approach.” Others, they said, were Animal Collective and Arcade Fire: “Because we do a lot of yelling and hitting things,” said Paterson.

“It’s accomplished, quirky, catchy pop,” said Baker, “and it’s an interesting melting pot of ideas - like Panda Bear meets Battles crossed with Daniel Johnston. There was a natural edginess that I liked. It felt like it could almost fall apart at any moment, but it didn’t.”

Last year’s iSessions winner, bilingual R&B and hip-hop artist Man Like Nells - from Westminster University - will release a solo EP, Frenglish, on 28 March and a further EP, Long Time Coming, with his band, ‘94, on 10 April.