Among the chart-toppers flocking to South Park for the Fox FM Party in the Park on Sunday, are a band who know what it's like to struggle.

Many of the tens of thousands expected to pack the east Oxford park will be hoping for a glimpse of Blue, Busted and Mark Owen.

But those who are left cold at the thought of watching hours of manufactured pop may be surprised to discover that not every artist is a product of canny marketing.

Speedway, fronted by singer and guitarist Jill Jackson and drummer and keyboard player Jim Duguid, got where they are the hard way ... gigging.

Jill has been writing songs since she was 12, inspired by Joni Mitchell, Tracy Chapman, the Pretenders and Buddy Holly. Performing is in her blood - her gran was an opera singer and her grandad a hypnotist and magician - and she began playing gigs at 16.

She supported Squeeze's Glen Tilbrook and the Byrds' Roger McGuinn, songwriters of the highest calibre, and wanted to write like them.

In 1998 her band was looking for a new drummer when she met Jim, a keyboard player and music technology graduate who had taken to song-writing while waiting around in recording studios.

"We just clicked," said Jill. "We come from similar working-class backgrounds and we're both very determined. When we started writing together we could be honest - if something wasn't good enough we would say it."

"We're trying to write that song everyone can connect with," explained Jim. "To be playing a stadium gig with 100,000 people singing your songs back at you. We want that euphoria."

Jill and Jim soon decided to leave the rest of the band. They recorded in Jim's tiny home studio and gigged intermittently, while Jill worked as a nursery nurse and Jim taught drums to pay the bills.

A tour of regional radio roadshows meant long drives up and down the country, for sometimes just 10 minutes on stage. "It was hard work, but every single show proved worth doing in one way or another," said Jim.

The band, together with guitarist Dan Sells and bassist Tom Swann, are billed as creating a sound that recalls the heyday of Blondie and the Pretenders, with a modern twist.

The break came in Christmas 2000 at the famous King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow.

The show was only their second under the name Speedway, but word had spread. Among 300 partying Glaswegians was Hugh Goldsmith from Innocent Records, home of Atomic Kitten and Blue.

He was impressed enough to bring the pair to London to showcase for his label, and soon after they were signed.

Speedway have been recording their debut album,while the buzz continues to spread.

This summer they played at Scotland's T In The Park and the V2003 events in Stafford and Chelmsford.

"Our personalities mesh," said Jill. "We've never fallen out. My Grandad always said he thought I'd be a superstar. He had this lucky charm, from New Zealand, which he gave me before he died.

"It seems to be working."

Speedway's double A-side single, a rocky cover of Christina Aguilera's Genie in a Bottle and an original track, Save Yourself, was released on Monday.

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