TWO bands from East Lancashire have made it through to the final of a national battle of the bands competition — held on the side of an Austrian mountain.

The Snowbyrds and The Raggamuffins were chosen from hundreds of unsigned bands to perform at the annual Snowbombing Festival where they will share a stage with The View, Biffy Clyro and Reverend And The Makers.

Last month, the bands made it down to the final 20 in the King of The Mountain competition chosen by event organisers of Snowbombing — a unique festival which sees a week of gigs at ski venues around the world.

Then they were put to the public vote and this week both were revealed as one of the lucky four groups to perform in Mayrhofen, Austria.

Travelling 20 hours on a coach to the festival, Mark Slater from Blackburn band The Snowbryds is confident his band will do well.

He said: “It’s about quality. From the other bands I heard, I feel we have the better song and the distinctive sound.

"If we perform on the day we will win.”

The lads are hoping to increase their fan base much in the same way as they did at last November’s Big Reunion, in Skegness.

Known as the UK’s biggest winter festival, they also won a place to perform there.

The Snowbombing festival sees a week-long series of gigs where the bands will get to play in the same line-up as Fatboy Slim, Dizzee Rascal and Ladyhawke.

The four bands will play a half-hour set each on March 31 and the winner will get to support Fatboy Slim the following day and receive a cash prize.

Clitheroe band the Raggamuffins will be pulling out all the stops trying to fit in as many of their three-and-a-half-minute songs into the time slot, including their most recent one Better Late Than Never.

But they are most excited about the big names on the bill.

David Jaggs from the band said: “We'd love to meet Dizzee Rascal.

"We've got a hell of a lot of time for his music and what he's got to say through his music.

"The fact he's on his third album in his early 20s is mind boggling.”

But they also have some fighting talk David added: “I'll be honest. I had a funny feeling when signing up to this competition.

"I’m dead proud of what we've achieved and recorded and felt quietly confident.”

“We're not expecting to suddenly go from an underground indie-pop band in the North of England to global superstars and million sellers overnight just by playing a festival, even one of this magnitude, but if we're lucky then who knows, the right people might hear our music and it might take off.”