AFTER winning a battle of the bands contest to appear at the star-packed Electric Gardens Festival, Fortystore are fast gaining experience.

Considering that three of the Jeff Buckley-inspired Canterbury rock act are still in their teens, they have a remarkably assured sound.

Fronted by 18-year-old Tom Cawte, the band have followed in the footsteps of indie stars Shed 7 in naming themselves after a building.

While Rick Whitter and co opted for a train shed, the Kent act’s architectural feature of choice is a PE store from Davington School, Faversham. It’s an unconventional choice but it might just work.

"We got together as a band when our guitarist’s old band dropped out of a battle of the bands. We thought right, we’ve got to write some songs and ended up winning the event," explained Tom.

The band’s growing fanbase have generated more than a thousand hits on their website and strong interest in the lad’s debut EP recorded at Graveney village hall.

Fortunately for Tom and bass-playing younger brother Adam, they have had some experienced musical services to fall back on.

"My dad plays and writes music for TV and film, so we just dragged one of his computers down to the hall for the recording.

"He has really helped us with the mastering side of things. We’re really pleased with the results and hopefully people will see that we have thought about these songs carefully."

According to their singer, there have been no major Gallagher-style bust ups so far as they are much too chilled out to argue over music. Though there are strong traces of Radiohead, Jeff Buckley and even Starsailor in their music, they are far from being an identikit rock band.

Tom said: "The best thing about being in the group is just getting to play music with each other. I do love gigs and the big ones are great, but when you have to play places were there are only going to be 10 people it’s not so fun."

Fortystore are at the Faversham Hop Festival on the Preston Street Stage on Sunday, September 3, at 11am. That evening they play Canterbury’s Tonic Bar and are on stage at 9pm.