BEING stuck on the M40 is not the ideal place to be given some big news.

But that was how Conquer Rio found out they were going to be supporting Scouting For Girls at Warrington Music Festival.

Tom Jordan, Lewis Melia, Jake Bate, Dan Cobley and Ben Roberts were crammed in a car in a traffic jam on their way to London at the time.

Bassist Lewis said: “We were driving down as we had some meetings as a band. We were stuck in traffic on the M40.

“It had been standing for three hours so we were a bit miffed and then the Scouting For Girls news came through which changed the mood which was pretty good.

“We’re all buzzing. The closer it’s getting we’re realising how good it’s going to be.

“To be able to do it at a festival where we grew up makes it even better and more special. I can’t wait.

“We just want to take the chance, make the most of it and put on the best show that we can because there’s going to be a lot of people there that we know.

“I think we have a similar audience to Scouting For Girls so it will be good chance to steal a few of their fans too!”

Conquer Rio were heading to London after teaming up with The Animal Farm, which has worked with the likes of Everything Everything.

The quintet will be recording songs at the music firm’s HQ and the best three are set to be released as singles between January and July.

Lewis, from Woolston, added: “It’s really good that a company has picked up on us down in London, which is a hub of all music in the country.

“It’s promising for us. If we can follow suit and get to the same sort of place as Everything Everything it would be really cool.”

Lewis told Weekend he hopes to recreate the atmosphere when Happy Mondays played at Golden Square last year.

The 20-year-old said: “Everyone said it was a cracking atmosphere and to have the main stage in the Old Market Place, with loads of top quality bands on, it will be the same this year.

“Because of that crowd it is going to be buzzing already before Scouting For Girls come on.

“So we just need to feed off that. If we can play a top live show like I know we can we’ll get the audience going for them.”

The band also hope to get some industry advice from award-winning Scouting For Girls, whose debut album went triple platinum.

Lewis added: “They’ve been there, they’ve done it. They were at the top of their game in 2007 and we were only in year nine!

“So it will be quite weird for us to be supporting them now which is cool.

“They’ll know a lot about the journey you have to make in the music business and we’re at quite an early stage so it will be good to speak to them.

“It would be good to know if they did anything differently and what worked for them. I’m sure they’ve got a wealth of knowledge that we can dip into hopefully.”

Conquer Rio formed when schoolmates Tom, Lewis, Jake and Dan began to talk about their shared love of the same rock bands at GCSE music class.

Their first gig ended up being at a presentation evening at Birchwood High where they played Muse’s Starlight and Franz Ferdinand’s Take Me Out.

- Conquer Rio are supporting Scouting For Girls in Golden Square on Sunday, July 20.