A WILMSLOW High School band have won a major radio battle of the bands scooping huge prizes which could propel them into the bigtime.

King’s Horses, an Alt Rock four-piece, beat off all comers at the Xfm Rock School competition to walk away with £1,000 worth of music shop vouchers, £500 worth of Bench clothing, a photoshoot and a day recording in the Xfm studio.

The quartet, who covered the Arctic Monkeys ‘When the Sun goes Down’, were picked out of thousands of entries by former Inspiral Carpets keyboardist Clint Boon and were voted, by the public, into the top three bands.

Legendary New Order bass player Peter Hook, who lives in Alderley Edge, an NME journalist and The Courteeners' manager Conrad Murray then chose the band as their favourites in the grand final live on air.

Bass player Caroline Pomfrett, 17, of Macclesfield Road, said: "It felt good winning. We had a gig that night at school and we were treated like kings.

"One of the bands in the final was really polished and we thought they would easily win, but I think the judges liked that we were a bit raw."

The band: Jack Burgess-Hunt, guitarist, Mike Fallows, 18, singer, and Will Patterson, 16, drummer, weren’t alone at the final as their music teacher Gary Morley, 32, was on hand to support them.

King’s Horses music is born in jam sessions where Jack provides riffs and Mike, who is said to be a showman on stage, comes up with lyrics.

Stand out tracks are ‘I Know Why You Can’t Sleep’, ‘Sink in your Bedroom’ and ‘Old Frontier’ and the music press are predicting big things for the youngsters.

Caroline said: "I want to be a music journalist and one of the judges from the NME sent me an email saying that Peter Hook told him to let me play the bass and not to steal me to journalism."