THE Basement are off on a Stateside tour next month to promote their debut album,
Illicit Hugs and Playground Thugs. The Omagh-bred, Liverpool-based four-piece kick off the tour on May 9 with gigs in New York, Washington, Boston, Nashville, Austin and Portland, Oregon.

The tour came about after a rep from Zealous Records, a small independent record label in New York, heard the band's album and approached the group's label, Deltasonic, to license the CD in the US.

The Basement is comprised of Omagh musicians Declan McManus, Mark McCausland, John Mullin and Graeme Hassall from Liverpool.

For the US launch, Illicit Hugs and Playground Thugs will also contain three of The Basement's singles released here in recent times.