TEEN band TKO play a huge homecoming gig supporting superband Steps.

Katie White and Emma Lally, both 18, and 21-year-old new girl Katy Malloy will appear before an audience of 14,000 at Manchester's MEN Arena.

The concert will be the largest ever for the Leigh-based trio, who recently sold a staggering 6,000 copies of their debut single 'Girlfriend' over the Internet.

But there will be no time for celebrating -- on Friday they will fly to Dublin alongside boy band Five, just 24-hours before going on to a gig in Belfast.

Manager David White said: "Things are going very well for the girls and I think 2001 will be their year."

The band's second single, "Stay" is due out next Easter when the group is expected to have signed a recording deal with a major label.

Up until now, the band has been bankrolled by Mr White's record company November Management, a firm he set up at a cost of £130,000, using money he won on the National Lottery five years ago.

TKO will be joined by up-and-coming band DNA, which includes Bolton nightclub dancer Darren Beddard.

The 22-year-old, from Whitefield, is a regular at Atlantis Nightclub and is currently preparing to release Shout, a cover of the 1980s Tears For Fears song, early next year.

Darren and his two bandmates, Aron Sowerby, aged 22, from Warrington, and Nick Reid, aged 24, from Kilmarnock, describes their music as "new age rock."

Darren said: "We're not a boy band although I'm sure we'll be labelled as that.

"We do a lot of work with top musicians like James."