THE town's top bands have a stab at stardom with the help of some digital wizardry and the Swindon Advertiser.

Swindon is a town loaded with musical talent. So much so that we are offering bands the chance to prove themselves with a nationwide internet competition called Local Heroes to root out undiscovered local talent and propel the best new acts onto the national stage.

Two lucky bands will win a summer tour and get to play at six major music festivals, including Global Gathering, Summer Sundae, and Beautiful Days, as part of the online talent search with fans helping to choose the winners.

Richard Millin, drummer for Swindon band Belarus, said such competitions were a great chance for Swindon bands to get their names known.

"Any competition that can get your band name noticed and promoted can only be a good thing. And you only need to look at the recent success of bands like the Arctic Monkeys to see how using the internet has bought them success.

"Looking back a few years ago, the quality of Swindon's bands was not very good at all but today, the quality and talent has gone through the roof and on most band nights in Swindon these days you can almost be guaranteed a good night of entertainment, "There are lots of bands out there with the talent to compete nationally."

To enter the competition, bands need to visit the Local Heroes website at www.lheroes.co.uk where they can register their band and upload to the internet an Mp3 version of their song, as well as blogs and profiles of their band members.

The band who can get the most hits on their website will build up a higher score and the top acts from each of nine regions in the competition will then go on to play a live national final in London, with the top two going on the summer festival tour with full technical support. Bands can register from now until June 1, when fans will be invited to decide on their favourites by listening and downloading tracks.

The festivals involved in Local Heroes include Summer Sundae, Beautiful Days, Get Loaded In The Park, Bulldog Bash, Global Gathering, and Foundation.

Local Heroes is being run in association with the Adver's parent company Newsquest, Virtual Festivals.com, HMV, Yamaha, and Roundpoint.