A Richmond band has won a global battle of the bands and will embark on a world tour.

The Carnabys were announced the winners of this year’s Hard Rock Rising, the world’s largest global battle of the bands contest, on May 8.

The five-piece have won almost £6,500 of music equipment, an album and video produced through Hard Rock Records and a spot on the at the Hard Rock Calling festival in London, alongside Bruce Springsteen and Kasabian.

The band triumphed last month at the London heat of the contest before they won a global online vote, beating 12,000 competitors from 94 countries.

Band member Ben Gittins said: “It is amazing. It hasn’t sunk in at all. We are completely overwhelmed and full of excitement.”

He was joined by fellow bandmates Jack Mercer, Alex Bloomfield, Mike Delize and James Morgan, all 19, who scooped the once-in-a-lifetime prize.

They will play at Hard Rock’s festival in London’s Olympic Park before performing in Chicago, Honolulu, Sydney, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The guitarist said: “I know we are going to be doing it but my body doesn’t know it yet.

“It’s like I’m lying to myself and I will only believe it’s really happening when I’m there in front of 80,000 people.

“We are all just so overwhelmed and we know that this is where the hard work really starts.

“We are 19 and we have been given this fantastic opportunity to really take our careers to the next step and the sky is our limit really.”

The band spent eight hours a day rehearsing at Heatham House in Twickenham in the run up to the competition and will play a show at Twickenham Riverside as part of the Twickenham Alive Riverside Festival on June 8.

John Kirkpatrick, head of music at Hard Rock International, said: “This year we saw some really high level competitors and with such an amazing prize on the line, the scoring process for all of us on the judging panel was more difficult than ever before.

“Ultimately it was The Carnabys who stood out because of their song writing, musicianship and performance level.”