TWO Greenock bands are still in with a chance of playing a major Scottish music festival this summer after making it through to the finals of a competition.

The Medicine Priests and Black Dove are vying for a place at Party at the Palace 2017 in Linlithgow this August.

They won the semi-finals of a battle of the bands contest at The Bungalow Bar in Paisley last week.

The competition was organised by Alice Brown, who is a student at West College Scotland in Greenock.

She said: “It was two very tough semi-finals but both The Medicine Priests and Black Dove battled it out and reached the finals with exceptional performances.

“The judges were blown away with the quality of both bands.

“The final will be held on June 17 at The Bungalow in Paisley. 

“The other two bands in the final are Moonlight Zoo and Atlas Run.

“It will be an exceptional night with plenty of people in the industry there to watch the bands.”

Another Inverclyde group, The Sinsheimers, made the semis and narrowly missed out on progressing to the finale.

They were pipped to the post by The Medicine Priests, led by Greenock frontman Anthony McElwee.

He’s in the band with fellow WCS students Ben O’Connor, who plays bass and is also from Greenock, Lochwinnoch lead guitarist George Russell and drummer Robert McIndewar, from Dumbarton.

But he says getting through was a bittersweet moment.

Anthony said: “It was tough competing against The Sinsheimers in the semi because I went through primary and high school with two of the guys.

“But it was really good to be part of it and I was surprised we got through.

“The final will be great and we’re keeping our fingers crossed.

“We’re going to go for it and give it our all.”

One Inverclyde band already certain of a place at Party at the Palace this summer is Banshee UK.

The four-piece outfit announced on Tuesday night that they have been added to the bill, along with the likes of Kaiser Chiefs, Amy Macdonald and Razorlight.