Video: A peek inside China's very own School of Rock

With neat ponytails and immaculate grades, the four eight-year-olds who bounded on stage would make any Chinese parent proud - but wielding electric guitars, these schoolgirls were ready to add another brick in the wall of rock history.

Dressed in blue-sequinned jackets, their band Cool blasted out a song by British pop-rockers McFly in a heavy style echoing 1970s megastars Led Zeppelin, complete with rock star jumps and fist pumps.

“I like to play loud music which annoys old people,” said lead singer Zhou Zi, whose favourite toy is a big white teddy bear. “We like rock songs because they’re crazy.”

Cool’s members lead parallel lives as students at a chain of music schools hoping to create a new generation of Chinese rock stars, and the band were one of more than two dozen child outfits battling for honours at a competition in the northern port city of Tianjin earlier this month.

The event - where bands offered a mix of foreign covers and original tunes - is a symbol of rock music’s move into the mainstream of China’s entertainment industry since it met opposition from authorities when it arrived in the country in the 1980s.

A band named Rock Fairytale - the eventual winners - played the Guns N’ Roses classic “Sweet Child O’ Mine” before the 10-year-old leader of another group, dressed in a spangly black shirt and leather boots, gave an impressive rendition of Queen’s “We Will Rock You”.