Rockabilly revivalists they might be, but it's not their music that makes Vincent Vincent and the Villains an old-fashioned band. It's their manners. "Ladies and gentlemen, get involved," Vincent says, like an aging member of the local neighbourhood watch scheme appealing for curtain-twitchers. "If anyone wants to come up here and dance, be my guest."
His courtesy prompts perhaps the most polite stage invasion ever to hit this east London stage. Safely ensconced beside the band, the fans don't try to interrupt the barbershop harmonies and finger-clicking, hand-clapping stomp of the ironic On My Own. They do what they were invited to do: dance. If the invasion seems stage-managed, an affectionate and appreciative gesture rather than a rupture of feeling, it's because the fans have done it all before.
Since forming in 2003, Vincent Vincent and the Villains have been quietly convincing ever-growing numbers of onlookers that their art school roots don't mean that their 1950s sound is simply a pose, that their tasteful Billy Fury melodies and Lonnie Donegan rhythms aren't about looking back, but striding forward.
After a clutch of independently released singles, it is with a major label that the band are finally releasing the anthemic Johnny Two Bands. A two-fingered salute to former Villain Charlie Waller, now lead singer with the Rumble Strips, the skiffle is spiked with bitterness. "It's not easy giving up on a friend," sings Vincent, legs twitching like Sun Records-era Elvis, "but you always doubted the music we made. You were wrong."
Vincent is right to be smug. The band's tales of dead-end jobs and mundane melancholy without histrionics - apart from Vincent's manic face pulling - are a simple pleasure. Leaving the Brylcreemed brilliance of Blue Boy behind, Tom Bailey's lead guitar is intricate on new song Jealousy and Bitterness, the moody End of the Night revealing new depths to the band. But they are still the gentlemen rock'n'rollers you would feel safe taking home to your mum.
· At the Louisiana, Bristol (box office: 0117 966 3615), tonight. Then touring.
