Were your dreams of rock stardom thwarted when real life got in the way? Live Nation, a concert promoter, is offering one amateur band the chance to reunite and play in front of 60,000 fans in Hyde Park.

Middle-aged rockers first need to dust off their guitars, track down that egotistical lead singer through Friends Reunited and take part in a nation-wide competition to find Britain’s best “lost” group.

A support slot at the Hard Rock Calling show in June, headlined by the Police and KT Tunstall, will be awarded to the band voted for by the public in the Virgin Radio competition.

The contest is also open to groups that formed in secure institutions. The first band that responded to an online missing members appeal was formed at HMP Wymott, Lancashire. The Prisoners split in 1996 when members were released but now want a noncaptive audience.

A Virgin Radio spokeswoman said: “We are looking for bands that split because the bassist slept with the guitarist’s girlfriend or because a Yoko Ono got in the way of that hallowed record deal. They may have not played since school, university or even prison but this is the chance for them to show the world they did have what it takes and still do.”

Virgin promises to help bands to track down missing members through social networking websites. A bass guitarist who emigrated to Australia, for instance, will be offered a flight back if his band is chosen as a finalist in the One Last Dream competition.

The winning band is likely to be a little rusty, so it will be mentored by a panel of music experts before playing a warm-up gig at the Hard Rock Café in London.

The competition was prompted by a caller to Christian O’Connell’s Virgin Radio breakfast show who wanted help in tracking down the drummer in a hobby band that split up 13 years ago.

The most famous university band is possibly Ugly Rumours, in which Tony Blair performed his best Mick Jagger impression alongside his Oxford chums. Other members included Mark Ellen, who became a rock magazine editor, and Adam Sharples, a leading official at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, recorded a single with his covers band, the Area, before abandoning a promising pop career when his amplifier was stolen.

The winning band members might yet have to give up their day jobs. Live Nation, the Hyde Park concert promoter, could offer further concert bookings if the winners get the crowd rocking.

Entrants should post band memorabilia such as CDs, flyers and photographs to www.virginradio.co.uk.

The Government’s Live Music Forum, meanwhile, has said that university bars, the traditional testing ground for new acts, are shunning gigs in favour of DJ-fronted dance club nights, though universities remain a popular meeting point for bands. Cold-play formed in 1996 at University College London and were contemporaries of Tim Rice-Oxley of Keane.

— Ministers have promised a new focus on music in schools. Children will be able to learn an instrument and perform in front of an audience under the scheme, which guarantees pupils five hours of arts and culture a week.

‘Let’s start a band . . .’

— Ricky Gervais had a short-lived singing career in the new romantic pop band Seona Dancing, which became a chart sensation in the Philippines

— Fiona Bruce sang Motown covers in a university band and with the French new romantics Chez Nous

— Jamie Oliver cooked up a racket with Scarlet Division. They hit No 42 in the charts after Oliver appeared on The Naked Chef

— Johnny Depp was told by his high school principal in Kentucky to drop out and pursue his rock band dream with the Kids

— Ken Stott, the actor, was a member of a band called Keyhole, whose members went on to form the Bay City Rollers

— Radiohead were formed at Abingdon School in Oxfordshire. The band called themselves On A Friday because that was when they were allowed to use the school rehearsal room

— Cajun Dance Party, a London sixth-form indie band, started a record company bidding war last year. Their debut album is released next week by XL Records

— The Charterhouse School bands Garden Wall and Anon became Genesis, featuring Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford

— Larry Mullen Jr, an aspiring drummer aged 14, posted a notice at the Mount Temple Comprehensive School, Dublin, seeking musicians for a new band – 32 years later U2 are still going strong

— The Brit School in Croydon is Britain’s only free Performing Arts and Technology School. Alumni include the Kooks, Leona Lewis, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Katie Melua, the Feeling and Kate Nash.

Source: Times database

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