A STRING of four-letter words is entirely apt to explain the runaway success of Northern Uproar.

Unfortunately, singer Leon Meya's excited blue-tinged descriptions of life in the fast lane could NEVER be printed in a family newspaper.

But what else would you expect from a band who are THE hype success-story of the last 12 months?

On Tuesday, the Wythenshawe-based band will appear before a sell-out 500-strong crowd at the Burnley Mechanics. Their faces regularly appear in almost all of the music magazines and their single is riding high in the charts. And, amazingly, all this has been achieved before their debut album has even been released. Yes, it seems manager Chris Whitehead really has been earning his crust with the boys who used to practise in one of their their mums' front room.

"It's ******* ace man," said Leon when asked about the band's current run of unbelievable luck.

"It's really good man. Everything's happening. We feel absolutely great. We've finished the album, we've been on Top Of The Pops. We are just keeping that stuff up and writing new songs all the time."

With an average age of just 18, Northern Uproar are too young to have been part of the massive Madchester uprising which their home city spurned in the late '80s. And they couldn't care less. Although they appreciated the Mondays, Roses and Inspirals, their time is now.

Besides, they were starting their musical careers at roughly the same time. Leon first played instruments when he was five!

"My own influences were The Beatles and my feelings to music have never changed," he said.

"Since the age of five, we all started getting into instruments.

"As a band, we have been playing for about three-and-a-half years years.

"But I never really knew what I wanted to be until I started gigging.

"I was doing this joinery thing because my mum was starting getting on my case. But I knew what was happening when we got lots of interest."

During their time together the band have produced around 50 songs which they have improved upon and enhanced. They pride themselves on the quality of their work - A and B-sides. "We don't sell any rubbish, "Leon said. "Our B-sides are just as good as the A-sides and every song is better than the last. They are about real life and real experiences as we see them.

"We know that we've been hyped and that people have high expectations of us.

"But our album is going to be an absolute stormer. It's brilliant man.

"We will much more than live up to everybody's expectations."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.