British invaders set for hard work in US; the latest wave of UK artists keen to make their marks on North America need determination to succeed.(GOING GLOBAL)

When the second British Invasion was starting to take shape across the Atlantic in the early Eighties, about the last thing the UK music industry would have dreamed of doing was asking Margaret Thatcher's Tory Government for a helping hand.

But two decades on it has become an ever-tougher battle fur British acts to penetrate a country that, according to the most recent IFPI figures, now stands as one of the most insular music markets on the planet, with 93% of its sales annually coming exclusively from domestic artists.

So it can only be welcome that Minister of State for Trade Ian Pearson MP will this Thursday use a briefing at the Department of Trade ...