Voted ‘Best British Newcomer’ by popular online rock magazine ‘Ourzone’ at the back end of 2009, southern rockers ’Twenty Twenty’, also known as; Sam, Jack and Sonny, hit the nation on their second UK headline tour in January 2010. With influences varying from pop princess Katy Perry, to punk bands All Time Low and Boys Like Girls, the bands individual presence in today’s roaring and ever growing music industry is something that everybody could consider ’worth listening to’.

Only hitting the UK’s music venues back in March 2009, the band have fallen along side touring with pop rock bands; Go : Audio, Saving Aimee, Attack Attack and The Gap Year Riot in the small amount of time the bands popularity has brought them anything. From this, the bands demanding popularity has shot through the roof, the fans being the main driving force of the band, with continuous and sheer support of success for the newbie’s swiftly driving the band straight to selling out such venues as Newcastle 02 Academy, Glasgow Academy and Islington - London on only their second headline tour.

‘I thought someone was joking with us when they told us we were playing the main stage in Newcastle! It was a big milestone for our band, and were so glad it happened in Newcastle!’ adds Singer and guitarist Sam Halliday after discussing the success of the Newcastle gig.

For most of November 2009, the band streamed their progression and recording of their debut album on internet based chat room, BlogTv, interacting with their fans through microphone and webcam in a sum what ‘big brotherly like’ experience, increasing the bands popularity even further.

‘I think our influences have really changed during this, as you have to write original songs for an album, you have to really turn to every single type of music for inspiration’ as said by Sam, after the bands headline tour. ‘We defiantly appreciate some bands now that we never used to’ he adds. After the online streaming finished, the band received a mind-blowing response from all, with ; online fan groups, street teams, and forums were setting as dedications in there hundreds, to appreciate the amusement the online streaming brought for both the fans and the band, all in preparation for promoting and selling out the bands UK tour in only a couple months time.

‘We were looking forward to the tour the most before hand, We were just so excited to get back on the road again, and see all of our fans! We had so much fun supporting Go:Audio back in October, we just wanted to play more shows, and we were especially excited as they were our headline shows! ‘ a traditional and yet similar statement often stated and expected by a pop punk bands front men prior to their headline tour, emphasising the enthusiasm and exhilarating excitement a headline tour brings to the band during preparation and touring. ‘We were really excited to play some new songs we recently recorded too!’ was something that hit the crowd at Newcastle O2 Academy on the 23rd January with a storm, bursting eardrums and vibrating walls as the likes of ‘Get Down’ and ‘Story Of Our Lives’ involved the crowd to just go that little bit further.

Touring along side Dublin’s finest ‘Jody Has a Hitlist’, Geordie newbie’s ‘Impulse 11’ and Canadian stars ‘The New Cities’ VIP tickets sold out within hours, and the gig being upgraded by popular demand. Photo- passes were ordered, popular press sent all to review the bands biggest nights of their career. ’To play in front of 800 people that were there just to see us is an unreal experience’ is just an insight to the atmosphere created by the tightly crammed crowd in the academy that night, outlining the huge step the band have jumped since they first started out back in March last year.

Tracks such as ‘Worlds Apart’ and ‘Scared Of Heights’ would be recognisable to any fan who tuned into the bands online blogging sessions, the bands continuous streaming, editing and causal sing along’s were a mere excitement part of the whole thing. Mind blowing buzzes sticking to the deep depths of the academy, encouraging the crowd to jump and dance even further into the night, as the band played some of their older tracks, such as ‘Tomorrow’, involving bassist Jack attempting a dive into the crowd, one which some fans describe as his ‘best yet’, recording his moments on the bands video camera, later to be turned into a video diary of their daring and exciting headline tour. With the expectations of the night set high, due to the popular demand of the band in the area, the show certainly proved to overcome its expectations, setting new limits and allowing the band to play in a much larger venue, carefully driving the band into the position of one of 2010’s big sellers!

The bands April and June tour dates are available at the bands MySpace/Facebook and Twitter at www.myspace.com/twentytwentyband and tickets can be bought at www.ourzonemag.com/tours and usual outlets!

By Chloe Spears