IT'S big in Japan for The Collectors who have just clinched an album deal with the land of the rising sun.

The trio - Matt Kittle, from Winsford, Chris Insley, of Winnington and Mark Borlaise, of Warrington - have caused something of a spin after rehearsing together in Barnton for just two years and playing just a handful of gigs.

"It's all happening so fast," said guitarist Chris.

"And we can't stop it!"

The band members are all in their mid 20s and take an unusual formation with front-man Mark also playing the bass and then there's Matt, who works as a chef in Winsford, on the drums. The band also write all their material together.

Their sensei-tional deal with EMI Toshiba is for three albums.

"We'll be launched first of all in Japan and after the main release we'll be moved on to the USA and some parts of Europe," said Chris.

"I hope we'll appeal to a wide audience - our work is guitar music really. It's quite hard to describe. We are like a line going through a lot of bands, although we try to write as much original stuff as we can.

"We've been mainly rehearsing for our album although we've done a couple of gigs in London which is brilliant, a completely different world. People pay money to go and see a couple of bands. When we play at the Boardwalk in Manchester, we have to take people we know along!

"We can't really believe what's going on at the moment. It's been so busy as we've all got our jobs as well, but when it all happens, we'll be skipping!

"We'll be going on tour in Japan to promote the album - I've never been before so it is exciting."

The Collectors' manager Chris Hewitt, from Northwich, added: "This is the culmination of a lot of hard work by the members of the band and myself. They have been rehearsing solidly for 18 months and deserve what will be a world wide deal."

See what The Collectors are like for yourself at The Farmers Arms in Rudheath this Saturday, March 13, from 7.30pm when they support solo artist TV Smith. Entrance is free.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.