PREENING Welsh rockers Lostprophets will bear the grubby TJ's for a smaller than usual show next month.

The Pontypridd band will play the first of three warm-up shows for their Reading and Leeds appearances in the Newport venue.

They've just finished the follow-up to the rehashed version of Fake Sound of Progress which they're likely to air at a gig on Sunday, August 17. The gigs will be the first since the band played the Brixton Academy in October 2002, since when they've been working with producer Eric Valentine in LA.

The results will be out on Visible Noise later this year. Lostprophets last graced Newport in October 2002 when they played the Newport Centre.

A rollercoaster ride of American recording studios and larger British venues had just begun for the band.

The band started playing metal covers in the venues across South Wales with little support from anyone except themselves.

The group of graphic designers, artists and musicians struck a chord with alienated metal-heads in the region who were tired of the sounds governmental music promotion units were shoving down their throats. Despite their slick look and poncing about on stage they've kept their DIY approach.

"It's pretty much still that way," says guitarist Mike. "Although we have a manager and agent now and all the rest of it, we are still a band that does what it wants to do. We have never been forced to do anything from playing gigs to writing music."

* Tickets go on sale tomorrow at 10am. Dial 01633 216608 for more information.