WELSH rockers People in Planes have announced their first headline tour this December.

The band toured the US this Autumn with fellow countrymen The Stereophonics, and have been described as descendants of Radiohead, Supergrass and Super Furry Animals.

Instead of rising through the often-fickle English pop music scene, People in Planes forged their own version of a British musical invasion when they caught the ear of New York-based Wind-up Records during a transatlantic musical voyage that launched their career.

Songwriters Peter Roberts and Gareth Jones met in primary school by one accidentally smashing a tennis ball into the other’s face and a friendship as well as a potent creative collaboration was born.

In their early teens, the pair were entranced by the first Supergrass album, I Should Coco, and resolved to forge their own path into making music by forming a band.

“They were not too dissimilar to us in age, so we could really relate to what they were doing,” says Jones.

“The first seeds of what we became were sown by that record,” adds Roberts.

They play Manchester’s Night and Day Cafe on December 8.