The Strokes Told 'You'll Never Make It'

THE STROKES star ALBERT HAMMOND JR. is amazed the band ever achieved success - because they were once warned they'd never even make it in their native New York.

The Last Nite rockers started out playing small venues in downtown Manhattan - and Hammond admits they concentrated too much on having fun, and not enough on their music.

He tells newspaper amNewYork, "One night we played Acme Underground in the East Village and the guy who ran it told us, as we were getting really drunk, that, 'You'll never play New York again'."