One of Britain's hottest new bands want to play at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend festival in Preston next month.

Little Man Tate, who played a free gig to a packed out 53 Degrees club in the city last Friday revealed in an exclusive interview with The Citizen that they would love to play at the massive free festival which takes place at Moor Park on May 19 and 20.

Lead singer Jon Windle said: "We definitely want to get involved with the Big Weekend event because we love playing the festivals.

"The good thing about festivals is that you can get your music across to a new audience because the crowd that are there are not guaranteed to have heard you before."

Guitarist Edward 'Maz' Marriot added: "I saw the one in Dundee last year and it was a great event. It's brilliant for cities like Preston to host it because sometimes the bands don't always play these places."

Speaking about last Friday's gig, Jon Windle said the idea was to give something back to the fans.

He said: "We are promoting the new single of course but we thought that it was a nice idea to get fans to go into a record shop and literally just get a free ticket for a gig.

"We've also done Manchester and Dundee and it's just a way of giving the fans something back for their support.

"We just really love playing and to do these kind of things is really great."

Around 400 people packed into the venue for a short set which included the hit singles Man I Hate Your Band, Sexy In Latin and new single This Must Be Love.

And following the show, the band were mobbed by fans after the gig, before heading off to the Hard Rock Cafe in Manchester where they played at the star-studded aftershow party for the Manchester Versus Cancer gig which took place at the Manchester's MEN Arena.