In an age of subtle product placement and stealth marketing, there is something laudably direct about the Earlies' sales pitch. "Oose bought our new single?" asks keyboard player Christian Madden in a lugubrious Mancunian drawl. A few hands are raised. He shakes his head. "Piss-poor," he says. "For Giles 'ere to validate himself to his mother, we've got to get into the charts." Giles Hatton - a burly, bearded man in a cowboy hat - looks up from his keyboard and waves cheerily. "She likes Cliff Richard," nods Madden. "A good review in The Wire magazine means nothing to his mum."
Perhaps the need to shift singles has more to it than Giles' maternal relationship. If John Harvey-Jones were drafted in to troubleshoot the Earlies, he would announce that the band are terribly overstaffed. There are Broadway musical extravaganzas that get by with fewer keyboard players - at one point, six people are tapping a variety of synthesizers. At least the percussionist multi-tasks, whipping out a trombone mid-song.
United in their praise of debut album These Were the Earlies, critics have nevertheless had trouble pinpointing the band's music. The theory that if Brian Wilson had recorded the Beach Boys' lost masterpiece, Smile, in 2004, it would sound like the Earlies was unsportingly scuppered when Brian Wilson recorded the Beach Boys' lost masterpiece, Smile, in 2004 and it sounded nothing like the Earlies at all.
Their sound betrays their diverse geographical roots - two members are from Texas, the rest from north-west England, which explains their habit of blending high, country-influenced harmonies with the kind of twinkly electronica released on Manchester's Skam label - but their songs never go quite where you expect. Careworn ballads erupt into thundering drum tattoos, delicious, Jimmy Webb-influenced pop songs are swamped by chest-rattling sub-bass and distorted guitars. Considering how crowded it looks on stage, it's delightful to report that the Earlies actually have more ideas than members. As it turns out, the last thing their music needs is a hard sell.
· At the Charlotte, Leicester, tonight. Box office: 0115-912 9000. Then touring.
