THE Clone Roses are to perform to a sold-out Sherdley Park as the band headlines the festival celebrating the group’s 20th anniversary.

Clone Fest takes place on Saturday with 4,000 tickets having been sold to bring up the full-house signs.

The group, which includes frontman Gav Scott, brother Tony, Mike Bagshaw and Phil Bennett, admit they could never have foreseen celebrating 20 years together back when they started out at the Phoenix pub in 1998.

Other tribute bands from the Manchester era including Oasish, The Smiths Ltd, Happy Mondaze, True Order, The Courtbetweeners & The Verve Experience will also perform on the day.

“We just didn’t know what to expect, we thought if we put on a big show we might sell 1,500 to 2,000, we never expected this,” admits Gav, 38.

“We have got a full list of tributes from the Manchester scene, Clint Boon DJ’ing Dave Sweetmore, the stadium announcer for Rochdale FC who is quite well known by football fans for having a good taste in music.”

Gav, from Windle, added: “A lot of tickets are sold in St Helens.

“It just shows that people from the town are willing to get behind it, we can’t believe the support. it’s been amazing.”

“Our first gig was at the Phoenix in 1998, we just put a few posters round town and had no idea what to expect, we didn’t think we’d get 20 years out of it!

“We have been buzzing about it for weeks.”