The Blackout are the hottest new rock act in the UK.

Having already played the main stage at Download Festival this year, the band are currently touring in the US, before flying back to headline a stage at Reading & Leeds, and now they're coming to Kent for the first ever Hevy Music Festival!

The Blackout began life in the Welsh town of Merthyr Tidfil in 2006, coming together from the nucleus of their previous band Ten Minute Preview (the TMP in question being the amount of time granted free on hotel porn channels). Each member had just finished university or college and so the group gave themselves a year in music in order that they could try and make something happen. Put simply, they made something happen.

In the summer of 2006, with just one EP release under their belt (The Blackout The Blackout The Blackout, issued through Fierce Panda) the Welsh sextet were invited by their countrymen the Lostprophets to be the main support on that band's UK tour. As guests of LP, TB played to thousands of people each night up and across the country, including two nights at London's famous Brixton Academy.

With gathering moment and an expanding fanbase, 2007 saw The Blackout release their first album, We Are The Dynamite, also released on Fierce Panda. Touring in support of this LP saw the band playing all over world, including two visits to Japan. They performed acclaimed and applauded sets at the Leeds and Reading festivals (introduced by DJ Colin Murray as "six self-professed cunts from Merthyr Tidvil"). The sextet also supported Linkin Park as part of the Californians' Project Evolution package, a bill that included the pop rock Gods N.E.R.D. After one show Sean Smith introduced himself to Pharrel Williams only to come away from the encounter with the superstar's mobile phone number.

By the time 2008 came by The Blackout had many other claims to fame beneath their belt, including their own headline appearance at the now demolished London Astoria. It was by now, though, time to start thinking about writing and recording the follow up to We Are The Dynamite. After filing their collection of new material down to 10 knockout songs the band decamped to Sonic Ranch Studios in El Paso, Texas, under the wing of British producer and A member Jason Perry. These desert sessions not only produced The Best In Town but also secured the band a record deal with the famous Epitaph label, who signed the sextet on the strength of these recordings.

"The Blackout have delivered an amazing record," says Epitaph President ‘Mr Brett' Gurewitz (the man who formed the label in 1981 in order to release records by his band Bad Religion), "and I expect these guys to make a huge leap forward this year. I'm thrilled to have them on the label."

For their part The Blackout are thrilled to be on the label too, having turned down the advances of at least one major label in order to sign a deal with the world's coolest independent imprint.

2009 is set to be their year, and we can't wait to be part of it - these guys are going to be huge!