A LITTLE perseverance goes a long way.

That is what an emerging rock band, which formed at Priestley College, has been out to prove as they prepare to tour the world with some of their heroes. Milestones will be performing in seven countries in Europe when they support Australian pop-punk band, With Confidence, in March.

The five-piece will then be sharing stages with Florida rockers Mayday Parade on their US and Canadian tour. They will kick off the A Lesson In Romantics 10th anniversary tour on March 23 in New Orleans, and wrap the tour up on May 26 in Orlando.

Before that, Milestones also have a gig with renowned New York band Taking Back Sunday at The Ritz in Manchester on Wednesday.

Guitarist Drew Procter, from Burtonwood, said: “It’s great. The last two tours that we’ve done were in much smaller venues. We were playing to a crowd of 300 or 400 at the most but this show is to 1,500 people so it’s really cool.

“We’re trying not to see it as a huge show because if you think about it too much it could stifle us. We’ve been rehearsing loads over the past few weeks because we’re playing new songs which we haven’t done before.

“It’ll be good to speaking to Taking Back Sunday about touring around the world as we’ve got a European tour and an American tour back to back.”

It is a far cry from the band’s situation a year ago when they were working full time while chasing their dream. Drew worked at the Co-op in Burtonwood from March to December before becoming a full time musician.

The 21-year-old would often have 14 hour days balancing shop work and songwriting and rehearsals.

Drew, a former St Paul Of The Cross RC Primary School pupil, added: “There was a point where we were working full time but also finding ways to practice in between and somehow managing to book two or three weeks off for tours. We were doing everything we could.”

So what is Drew’s advice for other bands in similar situations?

He said: “You’ve got to put a hell of a lot of work into it and don’t be stubborn about things. Be open to what other people think about how you can improve things.”

Milestones’ three months on the road in Europe, the US and Canada will be their first experience of touring overseas. Currently they have only played outside of the UK once for Dynamo Fest in Eindhoven, Holland, in August last year.

Drew, who was 11 when he started learning guitar, added: “It was really cool. We drove for two days straight. We were such a small band playing that show. We were pretty low down on the bill so we weren’t expecting an amazing reaction. We thought the cool part would just be seeing three different countries as we were driving through France and Belgium. But we got there and there were 600 people watching us and reacting to our music

“It turned into easily one of my favourite shows that we’ve done. Fast forward and we’ve got two really big tours and two places in the world to reach new audiences.

“I feel really positive about it because if I look back to what we were doing this time last year we were playing a few one-off shows around the UK.

“It’ll be really good for us because it’s a step up and we’ll be touring for pretty much three months straight so hopefully we’ll come off it feeling a lot more confident performance wise.

“I’m really excited to go to the cities which have a big musical heritage to them. Seattle had the 90s grunge scene, LA has a lot of famous venues and we all want to go to Niagara Falls as well.”

The band, who are working on their debut album at Steel City Studio in Sheffield, will also have the chance to meet their record label team for the first time. They are signed to Fearless Records in California

Drew said: “It will be really cool to see them in person as we’ve spent the past two years talking to these guys on Skype.”