TWO years ago, brothers Sam and Jack Halliday and their friend Sonny Watson-Lang were sitting in a pub dreaming about being pop stars.

Now the self-styled ‘Essex pop and rock trio’ are on tour with probably the hottest group in Britain – The Saturdays.

You could say the Twenty Twenty have arrived.

“We can’t believe how lucky we are,” says Jack. “It’s amazing to be playing with such a massive band. I can’t wait to get out there with them. It’s a dream come true.”

Things have certainly rolled-on quickly. Convinced they had what it took to cut it in showbiz, the sharply-gelled and coiffured brothers shelved their plans to go to university and recorded a four-track demo. They got on so well, they decided to form a three-piece band, roping in Sonny. And after four weeks in the studio, they had 14 tracks.

A Myspace phenomenon, they became an online sensation with their female fans soon baying for live shows.

The crunch moment came before 350 kids at a club in Dagenham. The audience loved them – and their course was set, with a gig at London’s Barfly, support slots for McFly, The Wanted, Alesha Dixon, Scouting For Girls and Disney Princess Selena Gomez, and a headline tour of O2 Academies.

Now they are playing some of the biggest venues in the land, supporting Mollie, Frankie et al on a tour, which, on February 19, hits the New Theatre.

“It is amazing we’ve come this far already,” says Jack, who along with Sam, actually comes from Cambridge (smarter, but possibly less ‘street’ than Essex).

“It was only a couple of years ago that we decided to take time out from university and college and follow our dreams of setting up a band.

“First, we were playing small rooms, then supporting bigger bands in larger venues, and then found ourselves headlining those venues. But we didn’t expect to have come as far as we have as quickly as this.”

And the timing is opportune. While we are well-served by girl groups, there is surely a Twenty Twenty-sized gap in the post-Busted/ McFly market for a new boy band.

Certainly their vocal fans seem to think so. “Ah the screaming girls,” says Jack. “Yeah, I don’t mind that!”

“Since day one that’s the crowd we’ve been playing to. I guess it’s because they like the pop side of what we do, where as guys seem to prefer rock. We do seem to be playing to a few more guys now, but I don’t know if that’s just because they know the girls are going.

“We do have a dedicated fanbase,” he goes on. “Most of them are 14 to 16 year olds, but at gigs we get lots of 18 year olds and mums – they say they’re just dropping the girls off, but somehow they have tickets too!”

The most endearing fact about the TT is how they came up with their name.

“We were thinking of band names, and writing down hundreds of ideas, but they didn’t seem right. So we went to the pub,” Jack says sheepishly, “We came up with a few more ideas, but nothing seemed to be settling.

“Then I looked at the clock, and it was 8.20pm – in other words, 20:20, and it seemed to work. You know it’s a good name when no one asks you to repeat it.

While they are striving to be seen as proper musicians and songwriters, they have rapidly acquired a reputation for something else – their hair. “It is something that people have commented on,” Jack admits. “It has become a bit of a trademark; we are becoming known as ‘the ones with the hair’.

“But, then, at least we are being noticed.”

* Twenty Twenty support The Saturdays at the New Theatre, Oxford, on Saturday, February 19.