Brendon Thomas and The Vibes

Musical influence

Brendon Thomas and The Vibes cite Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream, John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and The Who as their main musical influences.

The X Factor

With the inclusion of bands in the second series (an X Factor franchise first), Brendon Thomas and The Vibes attended the pre-auditions for the second series of New Zealand reality show The X Factor in Auckland in November 2014 and advanced though to the judges auditions. They performed "Foxy Lady" at their audition and received positive feedback from all four judges who advanced them through to bootcamp. They performed "Georgia On My Mind" at judges retreats where then mentor Willy Moon advanced them to the live shows. With the firing of their original mentor Willy Moon after the first live show, I Am Giant drummer Shelton Woolwright took over as the mentor for the groups category. Brendon Thomas and The Vibes found themselves in the bottom two for the first time in week 4 against Sarah Spicer, after their performance of "My Sharona" received mix comments from the judges. They performed "Power of Soul" as their save me song. The judges vote went to deadlock and Brendon Thomas and The Vibes were announced safe with more public votes than Sarah Spicer. Brendon Thomas and The Vibes found themselves again in the bottom two in week 9 against Stevie Tonks. With a spot in the grand final up for grabs they performed "My Generation" and won the judges vote with only Tonk's mentor Natalie Bassingthwaite voting to send them home. In the finale, Brendon Thomas and the Vibes were revealed as having received the lowest amount of public votes against Nyssa Collins and Beau Monga and were instantly eliminated. This saw them place third overall. They are officially the first band in X Factor history to make it into a grand final.