AN indie rock band from Evesham is set to perform at the O2 Academy in Birmingham, having reached the final of a national music competition.

Lower Loveday has its roots at the old Simon De Montford Middle School and has beat thousands of other hopefuls to reach the final stages of SoundWaves Music Competition UK on Saturday (February 24).

“Now that our music is up on Spotify etcetera, we are really starting to gain some momentum, so this could be a massive step for us,” said co-founder and drummer Tom Garbett.

Former pupils at the middle school, Mr Garbett and singer Mark Washington, won a talent show when they were 12, before going their separate ways, but then met years later by chance in Sydney, Australia.

“We fortuitously met in Australia when both travelling, and I showed him my demos of the songs and we decided that we had to do something about it,” explained Mr Garbett.

“That one drunken sing-a-long reignited a passion that had started back in that school talent show.

“That was a year and a half ago now and we have finally found the perfect line-up by adding guitarist Chris Francis and bassist Stuart Creed, around 6 months ago.”

He said the judges of Soundwaves, which started in the north of England, but is now open to acts across the UK, “loved the songs” they submitted.

Following a first round performance in Birmingham, the next stage was a video “where we had to record a live performance of the band to ‘wow’ the judges”.

Mr Garbett, who also went to Evesham High School, added: “The judges felt our songs and performance were very strong and that we have great potential.

“So here we are now in the final at the O2 Academy.”

The competition aims to help expose fresh acts, as well as go on tour and develop alongside partner label Subwaves, which includes recording an EP.

The band describe themselves as a melodic indie rock act, with guitar-driven catchy songs, similar in vein to Arctic Monkeys, Blossoms and Kasabian.

Their songs ‘Loved You’, ‘You Could’ve Been My Queen’ and ‘Anything You Wanted Me to’ have received airplay on BBC Hereford & Worcester, as well as Cannock Chase Radio, Uckfield FM and The Bugcast.

Visit lowerloveday.com for more.