Kid Symphony's unabashed intention is to be as big as possible, as soon as possible.

The duo of Chris Langdon and Pete Denton built up momentum last year, when they supported Electric Six and released their limited-edition, ten-inch single Hands On The Money.

In the next step up the ladder, Kid Symphony are on a headline tour this month, playing Fibbers in York on Sunday.

They arrive with much expected of their melodic rock. Kerrang magazine has noted their "mighty ambitions"; NME "expects plenty more fireworks to follow".

Langdon and Denton have been friends since the age of 15, their partnership forged through Leeds family connections and common tastes in bands. Now in their early 20s, they have been through both good and bad experiences as aspiring musicians. By 16 they had signed to a major label but their heavy rock band Cube suffered the disappointment of being dropped at the outset of 2000.

From their refusal to be beaten into conformity has grown a ballistic pop double act. "As it's just me and Pete doing it, people say 'What are you, a band or what?," says Langdon. "I know that's going to be hard for people to get their head around because there's only two of us. In most bands there's always the two guys who nobody knows, so all we're doing is we're eliminating that."

"We're being truthful, that's the point," says Denton.

Kid Symphony's songs started life on Langdon's bedroom computer and have undergone further work since the duo signed to Island Records in 2002. Produced by Langdon and Denton at Rockfield Studios in the calm of the Welsh hills, the tracks feature elegant piano breaks and codas and elaborate arrangements, inspired by childhood exposure to Queen, David Bowie and Pink Floyd.

"We do take influences from bands like Queen, people like Bowie, but we don't want to be Queen, we don't want to be David Bowie," says Langdon. "We want our music to be 2004, but with great songs."

For this month's tour, they have recruited friends in Leeds to form an extrovert band to handle music of cheek and optimism and wide smiles. "I don't think that the music we do limits us to anything," says Denton. "There's a lot of bands at the moment who can only really play to a thousand people and that's going to be it. There's nothing wrong with that but that's not what we're trying to do."

Langdon adds: "I've always had that thing of wanting there to be rock stars, and I think people in bands now don't want to provide that. A lot of bands are afraid of it but the public want people to look up to, and nobody really dares to do that any more because it's seen as not cool or as selling out. But it can be a great thing, escapism."

Their debut single proper, Meet You On The Other Side, will be released on the other side of the tour, on March 8.

Kid Symphony, Fibbers, York, Sunday. Tickets: £5.

Updated: 16:05 Thursday, February 05, 2004