A group of teenage rockers are celebrating after beating more than 10,000 entrants to reach the regional finals of a national unsigned band competition.

We Stole Cairo is made up of four friends from Kingston Grammar School and Esher College who have only been together a year, and entered the Live and Unsigned competition after being spotted at a gig.

Cameron Stewart, 16, from Twickenham, is a pupil at Kingston Grammar school and taught himself to play the guitar in just eight months.

He said: "We were urged to enter the competition after playing a gig at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London and we're chuffed to bits with everything that has happened since," he said.

The band is also made up of guitarist Mark Murray, 17, of Wimbledon, drummer James Simpson, 17, of Thames Ditton, and lead singer and bassist Rory Johnson, 17, of Wimbledon.

Speaking about the inspiration for the band's unusual name, Cameron said: "We were just sitting around one day and it stuck. We've never been to Egypt but I'm not sure they'd welcome us with a name like ours if we went there!"

The band, who describe themselves as having an indie alternative rock sound, have been busy recording their self-released debut album, Patterns, and write all their own music and lyrics.

Cameron said: "Our inspiration is bands such as Bloc Party, Radiohead, Editors and The Strokes but we'd like to divulge into different styles and our own sound."

We Stole Cairo will now battle it out at the Live and Unsigned regional final in Aldershot on April 5 for a coveted place in the national final where the overall winners will win a recording contract worth £20,000.