THEY have already played at Glastonbury and The Rainband should feel right at home at their next Festival.

Urmston's The Rainband are about to appear at the BL9 event in Trafford Park opposite two legends of the Manchester and Liverpool music scene.

Happy Mondays and Echo and the Bunnymen are on the same bill at the show, moved from its original location of Bury FC's Gigg Lane ground to EventCity.

Lead singer Martin Finnigan said: "It's really exciting this, it's right on our doorstep really."

Martin said the group has already played with Mondays front man Sean Ryder when he did a solo gig and apart from his legendary status, he said Ryder is "a really nice guy." He's seen the Bunnymen several times and said their live performances "seem to go from strength to strength."

The BL9 event will give fans of The Rainband the chance to hear tracks from their new album, Satellite Sunrise, which is due for release in September.

Martin said: "I really think this is the definitive sound of The Rainband. It's taken us four years in terms of writing and we've worked in a number of studios, including our own studio next to MediaCity. We've been working around the clock and whenever the moment caught us we were able to go into the studio and create that sound."

There's no rest for The Rainband - after BL9 they'll be boarding the tour bus to head for the Isle of Wight Festival where they'll be playing on the main stage,

* The BL9 Festival takes place from June 13-14 and anyone interested in booking tickets should visit bl9weekender.co.uk.