THE owner of one of Swindon's top live music venues has welcomed our Local Heroes competition.

We are on the look-out for undiscovered talent to take part in a nationwide internet competition.

The competition will see two bands winning a summer tour and getting to play at six major music festivals, including Global Gathering Summer Sundae, and Beautiful Days.

Fans will help to choose the winners as part of the online talent search.

Nicky Fitzgerald, owner of The Furnace in Commercial Road, said: "I think it's a good thing.

"Local people can get behind them. It's quite a big competition and they have the chance of going to some big festivals.

"It is hard to get recognised and competitions like this are how bands get recognised.

"Anything that builds their profiles has got to be a good thing."

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.

The top two will go 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.