They resent being called 'the new Busted', but emerging rock band Rooster do have the clean-cut good looks to attract female fans. Viv Harwick reports on the rise of the London-based band who are playing two dates in Newcastle and one in Middlesbrough Town Hall next week.

THE band labelled 'next big thing' of 2005 are Rooster who play three North-East dates next week having hit the top ten with the single Staring At The Sun last month and reached No 3 in the current album chart. Frontman Nick Atkinson, 24, and his bandmates, guitarist Luke Potashnick, 22, bassist Ben Smyth, 19, and drummer David Neale, also 19, are loving the life of a rock band at the moment.

Atkinson says: ''We're enjoying every minute. Well not every minute, but we're out there, our music's out there and we're out there playing live. The venues are getting bigger and better and so are the crowds. We're having a blast. Nothing to complain about, certainly.''

This year is going to be the year of the Rooster for more than just those who follow the Chinese calendar. The band's debut album, called Rooster, has raced to No 3 in the Radio 1 album chart and it looks like Rooster are set to dominate the charts this year with their funky take on stadium-style rock.

Atkinson says: ''Without wanting to sound whiny, it's quite hard work at the moment. There are times when tempers get frayed, but we're all big enough to apologise for being an idiot, and understand that actually what were doing is all right really.''

Since crashing into the Top 10 in October, last year, with their debut single Come Get Some, Rooster have been garnering more and more fans. Most of them at the moment are female due to what Nick diplomatically describes as the band's ''fresh-faced'' looks.

He comments : ''We meet girls all the time after gigs. They all want to talk to you and get autographs. They flirt a bit as well, and that's all good.''

And how do you behave around them? ''Oh you know, we talk, we flirt a bit, it's all good,'' he says, looking embarrassed. ''But we're playing venues where there are old rockers at the back that come down every week to check out bands and they're coming up to us at the end and saying they're loving it as well.'' Atkinson also has a girlfriend of three years - Beth, who works for an advertising agency - and both Luke and Dave are also in relationships.

''Since things took off, I think it's been most difficult for Dave because his girlfriend is in Cornwall,'' says Atkinson. ''He doesn't see her very much. But all the girlfriends know the score. They know what we're doing, and we're working too hard to fool around anyway.''

The west London-born singer had always had dreams of being in a band, but ended up going to university in Bristol because ''you know, you get programmed - university, that's what you do''.

He left after a year and headed back to London where he joined a number of bands. He'd known Luke since school - Luke was a friend of Nick's best mate's little brother - and after another band didn't work out he got back in touch with Luke, remembering they shared a love of heavy rock music ranging from Led Zeppelin and Cream to Aerosmith and Guns'N'Roses.

''After me and Luke had been together for a few weeks, sounding each other out, we got to the stage where we wanted to put a band together and Luke said he knew of a drummer in Brighton. So we got Dave, who's from Cornwall originally, up to play with us, and we liked him, he liked us.

''Then after going through a couple of bassists and not really knowing any that didn't live in Leeds or weren't a little bit weird, we put an ad in NME and Kerrang!. When we auditioned we saw people and straight away we'd think, I'm not going to get on with them.

''We had some really metally guys come in and see us,'' he laughs. ''Big platform soles and full-on goth style. They would play and we were like, 'Thanks, we'll call you'. But Guildford-born Ben was like-minded. He's really passionate about music and he knew his instrument inside out.''

The journey from formation to Top 10 hit was relatively quick. They decided on the name Rooster after Nick won £250 on a horse called Rooster Booster, and were then quickly signed by record company bigwig Hugh Goldsmith to his new label Brightside.

But when the band were first launched they suffered lazy comparisons to Busted and McFly.

''The people who did that hadn't come to see us play,'' says Nick. ''They get sent a picture and they look at us and we're young guys and we're fresh-faced or whatever, and they immediately want to pigeon-hole you. But that's fine. We're quite happy to go out and prove people wrong.''

The Darkness, with their similar stadium-rock sound, might be a safer comparison.

''Maybe musically we're a little bit more like them,'' says Atkinson. ''I don't want to offend them, but they've got a much bigger show element to their live performances. But they're a live working act and that's what we consider ourselves to be.''

* Rooster's debut album Rooster came out last month.

* TOUR DATES

Monday, Newcastle University

Tuesday, Middlesbrough Town Hall

Wednesday, Newcastle University.

Published: 03/02/2005