AN up-and-coming Kidderminster band are a step closer to achieving their aim of "getting noticed" after winning a Battle of the Bands contest judged by a panel including the sound engineer of rock mega band Metallica.

Escape From Alcatraz pitted their musical talents against a host of other bands, including Fernandez Must Die, Quorn and Streamline, in a Battle of the Bands contest and won a 10-track mixer when they came out on top.

Guitarist Lee Jeffries said the band - which is due to record and release its second demo CD in the summer - were now considering making records themselves using the equipment, worth around £1,000.

The group - which also consists of drummer Dave Hinton and singer and bassist, Andrew Edwards - is also celebrating getting its official website up and running, last week. It can be accessed at www.escapefromalcatraz.co.uk and enables visitors to purchase the band's first demo, Try and Touch the Sky.

Twenty-year-old Lee - who works as a test engineer at Klerk Teknik, which held the Battle of the Bands contest for its workforce, friends and families, on Friday March 11, in aid of Comic Relief, the RSPCA and victims of the Asian earthquake - said they were "thrilled" with their victory.

He said it was "cool" to have been judged by Metallica's engineer, Big Mick, who is a client of Kidderminster-based Klerk Teknik.

"It was quite an honour to win something like that, especially when we have only been together for about a year," he went on.

"The main thing for this year is that we're determined to get ourselves out and about and noticed."

He added: "All the bands that played on the night were really good and one or two of them had only formed for that night."