THEY have been aiming for a slot at Wickerman for years and now the Sunday Herald has made the dreams of the Cut Throat Razors come true.

The Glasgow-based group is delighted to have won our competition to perform at the festival and hopes the chance will lead to big things. The 10-piece band will open the main stage and play on the same bill as Dizee Rascal and Del Amitri.

Scott Crawford from the band said: "Winning is phenomenal. We're a big band and play all our own stuff in a mixture of styles, which can be a bit of a challenge at times, so when you win something as prestigious as this it is both hugely rewarding and reassuring that we must be doing something right.

"The fact it's the Sunday Herald too - I've read this paper for years and never dreamt our band would ever feature in it.

"As for playing the Wickerman - well, that's a big deal for us. A few of the band have been going to the Wickerman for a number years and we've tried desperately to get on the bill. The organisers must have a collection of CDs of our studio album, Dr Gelati and the Lemon Garden, as every few months I send them a copy with a polite plea asking them to put us on."

This year's Wickerman Festival at East Kirkcarswell in Dumfries-shire is on July 25 and 26. The bill includes Shed Seven, the Feeling and Alabama 3

But Scott says he's most looking forward to Lee Thomson's Ska Orchestra.

He added: "I grew up listening to the Two-Tone bands and Lee Thomson, the sax player in Madness, inspired me to get into playing and writing music in the first place.

"We'll be sharing a stage with some musical legends like Del Amitri and Martha and the Vandellas. It's a great opportunity for us: it's a completely new crowd we will be playing to and I'm sure we can persuade others that we are a great festival band."

While Scott is hoping performing at Wickerman will send the Cut Throat Razors on an upward trajectory, last year's winners Dorec-a-Belle said the competition opened doors for them.

Maryann Frew from the foursome, said: "Since our Wickerman spot last summer we have supported The Magic Numbers, Glenn Tilbrook and Nick Harper, got chosen by Highland Council to play at Inverness Hogmanay street party with The Red Hot Chilli Pipers in front of 9000 people, and were chosen to showcase at goNorth Festival in Inverness.

"It was also recently announced by Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival that we are to play the fantastic Grassroots Stage at this year's festival in August on the same poster as Tom Jones. As well as all this we continue to do lots of gigs, have released a new version of Listen as a single and are releasing our debut album over the summer.

"So, lots of exciting things happening for us, aided no doubt by the kudos of winning your competition last year."

Scott added: "If I'm honest, we're hoping winning the competition and playing Wickerman takes us to the next level. Nothing massive, you understand - all fairly modest.

"We would like to play more festivals, bigger gigs and we now have loads more songs so we would like to get back into the studio and record another album."