AN ANDOVER band is set to tour Europe for the first time as a headline act.

Echotape is following in the footsteps of The Troggs as four musicians from Andover and Middle Wallop looking for success in the music industry.

With the release of new EP This Could Be Anything on Tuesday, 12 September, the indie-rock band found itself hitting number 134 in the iTunes chart, as well as charting in Ghana.

To kick off its first tour of the year tomorrow (Saturday), Echotape will be starting where it all began- Andover, followed by London, Utrecht, Den Haag, and Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Brussels in Belgium and Bergen, in Norway.

Echotape has toured Europe before, having played as Graham Candy’s supporting act last year, but this is the first time the Andover musicians are top of the bill.

Bassist Joe Stickland said: “With what we do, we spend so much time in the van and it’s such hard work so we’re hoping to take a trip to Amsterdam while we’re in the Netherlands if we can.

“A big part of touring is meeting new people and finding new people who are listening to our music which is quite humbling. We’ve reached a point where people are finding us without us going out looking for them.

“We want to be a DIY level of act, there’s not so much money in the industry like before so we try and do as much stuff ourselves for example shooting our own videos We want to do our best and go as far as we can but make sure we enjoy it along the way.”

Joe joined Echotape as the fourth member in 2015, joining the Burford brothers, Marc on vocals and guitar, Mike on drums, and Dan Bowman on guitar.

In the two years since, the group has performed at an array of music festivals, appeared on BBC Introducing Solent and will have its latest tune Forget It played at Topman and Burton stores across the country.

For ticket information for the first leg of the tour in Andover at The Rockhouse, go to rockhouseandover.co.uk.