Midlands group having "amazing time" as they open Eurovision Song Contest

Spilt Milk Society was formed by Harry Handford, from Bridgnorth and guitarist friend Josh Hyde, who is from Codshall, when the pair were still at school.

Eight years later and the four-piece Indie-rock, which also features drummer Rob Ford from Birmingham and bassist Jordi James from Penkridge, were invited to open the Eurovision Sing Contest celebrations in Liverpool on Friday.

Lead singer Harry, who now lives in Merseyside said.: "It has been amazing. We got to share a stage with the legend that is Sophie Ellis-Bexter who headlined, although many of the acts were up and coming like us."

He said the opening celebrations, which also featured Charlotte Church, was a free to enter event for the public held on Liverpool pier, which saw thousands of people turn up.

"It was incredible to be playing in front of the Mersey with the famous Liver Building overlooking us. Thousands were there and the whole pier was full," added Harry.

He said the "chance of a lifetime" to open this year's Eurovision in Liverpool, came about through their collaboration with the Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMFS).

"LIMFS is brilliant programme that helps us a lot with things musicians are not very good at such as social media. They created the stage for the Eurovision so they asked us to open the show for them. We couldn't say no.

"We are now hoping to sneak into the competition tomorrow, but we're spending a lot of the weekend supporting some of our friends and other up can coming acts."

Spilt Milk Society's debut album Hopefully Anyway is set to be released next week. For more information on the band visit: facebook.com/spiltmilksociety