RAIN may have dampened fans' spirits, but the four members of an up-and coming indie band are fired up for a bright future after a big win at an open air music festival.

Resthouse, from Shildon, County Durham, won a free day's recording at Studio 64, in Middlesbrough, in a contest with five other groups on Saturday.

Tom Tolson, Craig Riley, Wayne Thompson and Paul Scott have been together since November 1999 and play in Shildon Mission Hall.

The contest was part of an overall day of entertainment featuring other bands at the Sound Trak 2001 festival staged at Shildon Athletics Stadium.

Organisers said the Resthouse four were "over the moon" with their win over Claiborne, Flypaper, Slam Down, Surplus and The Experience.

Sedgefield Borough Council hopes the event would help young people celebrate the start of the school holidays and enjoy live performances by local and professional artists.

Organiser Bernd Bangel said that 1,000 people had turned up on one of the wettest weekends of the summer.

He said: "I would like to do it again. The people who stayed had a brilliant time. There were no problems and everyone was well behaved."

But the event, which closed the road from Shildon to Middridge, struck a note of discord with people living close to the stadium in Sunnydale.

Dennis Pratt said: "It was very loud and could be heard all over Shildon.

"They didn't have much luck with the weather and there was no trouble, but they should have had some bigger names that people had heard of.

"I don't think there can have been any more than 200 in at any one time and it must have lost a lot of money."