The Bank Holidays always lay on a decent spread for their release parties. For their EPs they decked out playhouses, a decision that privileged prettiness over sound quality, but for the big one, the launch of their album As A Film, they chose the more conventional Bakery stage as the launching pad. It was nice to be standing for a change, but the real difference between this and the other launches wasn’t the change of venue, nor the Victorian-era pirate pupils costume theme they had going on. Rather, it was the kit of hits the band is now able to peddle.

At the launch of their most recent EP Good Looks to Camera in 2005 I was struck by the then brand new song ‘Teaching Pupils’, a piece that begins with a great guitar lead and ends with a swirling tempest of harmony. A song that became a notorious highlight over the next two years, it put to bed comparisons between the band and 90s-style Belle and Sebastian and gave life to a more apt likeness to the Zombies. It really stuck out, but now not so much. It’s merely one of the many songs by the band and on the album that pick up, dust off, and rejuvenate pop in ways that elevate it beyond foppish tweeism, and place the emphasis on songwriting momentum rather than self-conscious wordplay. Their performance tonight was as solid as it has been all year, characterised by understated stage presences that let the magic of the songs do its work. It was a reassuring state of the union for a band reaching toward bigger things.

by Matt Giles