Prank fools music industry bigwigs

New Zealander Zane Lowe was one of the top British music brass to be fooled by a bogus band on the myspace website.

British rock'n'roll bible Q pulled the stunt by persuading a work-experience student and two of his mates to become the band Hope Against Hope and a demo was downloaded onto the website.

Through myspace the band got in contact with Lowe, a DJ on Radio One and a music TV host who is one of the most influential people in British music.

Popular band the Editors also became "friends" with the band.

But it was music guru Alan McGee (the man who discovered Oasis) who was the biggest fish to bite when he offered the band a gig spot at his Death Disco club.

Q's deputy editor Gareth Grundy said, "You don't really expect you're going to get an offer of a gig from the man who signed Oasis for a band that doesn't exist. I'd call that quite a result."

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch recently bought myspace for $580 million and its power came to light when the site helped make the Arctic Monkeys' debut album the fastest-selling in British pop music history.