EARLESTOWN band The K’s will be flying the flag for their hometown on the main stage of one of the most hotly-anticipated music festivals in Europe this summer.

We were at the illustrious Cavern Club in Liverpool last night as the four-piece band grabbed what felt much like a break-through opportunity with both hands and demanded to be added to the line-up of InMusic Festival in Croatia.

The Cavern Club in Liverpool’s Mathew Street, famed for being an early haunt of The Beatles, hosted the final of Northern Exposure’s battle of the bands event. The prize was to be added to the line-up of the festival in June, playing under the likes of The Cure, Foals and Johnny Marr.

The K’s, made up of Jamie Boyle (lead singer), Ryan Breslin (lead guitar), Dexter Baker (bass) and Jordan Holden (drums), faced stiff competition from Dirty Laces, RATS, Young Garbo, A VOID, and Jack Perrett.

But despite being in amongst some of the best emerging bands on the scene at the minute, the Earlestown lads produced a performance worthy of a spot on any stage at any festival.

With the walls of The Cavern decorated with the names of huge bands such as Rolling Stones, Arctic Monkeys and Elbow who all played the venue during their humble beginnings, and with legendary founder of Creation Records and discoverer of Oasis, Alan McGee, watching on, the event had a distinct air of fatefulness.

Northwich Guardian:

The K's after being announced winners of Northern Exposure InMusic Final. Photo: Northern Exposure

For whoever won, a place on the bill at InMusic in Croatia’s capital Zagreb could prove to be a catapult into a new realm of exposure.

All the more impressive then was The K’s opening song choice, putting their faith in an untested new track with just three songs to win over the judges.

But there was good reason for the choice – each song played was loud, fast, energetic and had the crowd buzzing. Frontman Jamie put absolutely everything he had into his performance in a real statement of intent.

Needing a moment to catch his breath, he filled the gap with a short verse of The Dubliner’s classic Dirty Old Town, with an honourable mention to ‘Dirty Earlestown’ slipped in.

‘This next song has had 999,999 plays on Spotify, but who’s counting?’, joked Jamie introducing the bands hit Sarajevo.

And when a band’s song has racked up a million plays less than two years after first forming and without radio exposure, who’d blame them for mentioning it?

They finished with Dacton and Wanderella, which started slow and built up into a high-octane finish met with rapturous applause.

The K’s will now jet off to Croatia to play InMusic Festival, which is held on an island in the middle of Zagreb’s Lake Jarun in June, and no doubt the Croatian crowd will hear all about Earlestown.