It takes more to make wishes come true than one little star.

In first-year John Natchez's case, it took the whole moon. Moon Records, that is. This February, the record company released "Fat Footin,"" the first album of Skavoovie and the Epitones, a ska group in which Natchez plays saxophone.

And since that album came out, there has been more noise than usual surrounding the boisterous 10-man group--"really good buzz" as Noah Wildman, office manager at Moon describes it.

So good, in fact, that Natchez is now looking forward to a wish-come-true. Next autumn, he and his band will join another ska group to make an international tour of Europe and the United States.

Reacting with typical wry modesty, Natchez simply says that he hopes the trip will be "a wonderful learning experience."

"That's what these years are for, if I can wax cheesy for a second," he says. "After four or five years I'm going to have to settle into something." Before doing that, though, he says he wants to enjoy the tour because "this is the last chance for full time personal development."

The tour's time frame, which was arranged by Moon, will force Natchez to take a leave of absence next term, which would have been the beginning of his sophomore year.

However the interruption doesn't trouble the planned English concentrator.

Instead, Natchez will spend fall and early winter crossing the United States, Germany, Poland and other European countries with his band and other ska groups, including the more widely-known group The Toasers. Official dates have not yet been set, and Moon is currently in the process of booking engagements.

Touring is not an entirely new experience for the Newton-based group. Two summers ago they traveled halfway across the country. Last summer they crossed the entire U.S. in a van, staying in small local accomodations and playing a schedule of gigs they set up for themselves.

"It's wonderful," Natchez says of the experience. "You feel like crap all the time, you smell awful."

The group plans to repeat the experience this summer. "Our tour this summer is still going to be very old school, very earthy," says Natchez, "Meaning we will smell."

The group's leader Ans Purin, 20, even describes another side of the appeal.

"Being able to play for so many people and just getting into a different state every day and the fact that you don't answer to anyone on tour," Purin says. "It's a free world you're living in. The only thing you need to worry about are your two shoes and socks."

The autumn tour promises to be somewhat more comfortable--even lucrative--which is a welcome addition for a group which in the past just broke even and played more for its own amusement than any financial gains.