Want to start a new band in the US? You'll probably end up in the West End of London while you're paying your dues.

The blueprint for breaking US bands [in the UK] includes a 12-date tour, a limited edition single, a PR campaign and some specialist radio. "It's still not cheap," says Dave Bedford, who manages sensitive British crooners the Tindersticks, "but it's cheaper than America because the UK is smaller. If you do have success in the UK you're more likely to get a better budget from your label when they do finally decide to launch you back home."

This is an interesting twist on globalization, I suppose. It's odd, though, because the cultural tastes of Britain hardly mirror the US. What's the old saw; "...two countries divided by the same language?" Given some of the popular items in the UK that just never quite made it here (Robbie Williams, AbFab just off the top of my head), this seems like a huge bet. But, at the same time, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Survivor have both been runaway hits, so maybe there is something to this after all.

Ever since the Strokes breezed into Britain and left six months later, suitcases bulging with rave reviews, executives in the States have started to eye the UK as a test market for its alternative bands.

"It can cost upwards of $300,000 [£165,000] to take record to radio in the States," says one US Radio Promotions representative, "so going to Britain is a more cost effective way of building a band's reputation."

The Strokes, who played New York's Bowery Ballroom for two years without success, returned to America to find a queue of major labels at their door. Oddly, while the Stateside media has become suspicious of British press hype, their own tastemakers look to us as a type of buzz barometer for US bands.