You could say it was unlikely, but that would be an understatement. ‘Astonishing’ might be more apt, but even that doesn’t quite capture the complete unpredictability of the case. For there can be nobody, in the whole pop universe - not even Old Hayden in his most imaginative moments - who could have prophesied that The Boo Radleys would leave behind 1993 having been acclaimed in almost every music magazine as the most original and exciting band around.

A few years ago The Boo Radleys (name taken from Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird) were just another facet of the mostly uninspiring “shoegazing” scene. They weren’t ignored exactly, but there was certainly no danger of them dying of over-exposure. Anyone who attended their gig at the Rock Garden in late ‘92 would have witnessed a stirring show by an obviously talented and innovative band but even still, there wasn’t much to indicate that The Boo Radleys were capable of ever building up more than a nodding acquaintance with Messrs Massive Popularity and Critical Acclaim. But come late 1993. The Boo Radleys blossomed. Their third album, Giant Steps was released and suddenly complete strangers were stopping each other in the street, shaking their heads in astonishment and murmuring things like “Have you heard ‘Upon 9th And Fairchild’? Isn’t it wild? Doesn’t their blatant disregard for the conventions of BritPop, and indeed, the naked ambition that characterises all of Giant Steps, make them simply irresistible?” In short, the album came as a bit of a shock.

“I don’t think we expected people to be as surprised as they were,” admits songwriter and guitarist Martin Carr. “People don’t seem to expect a band to change, especially not in the space of one album. But that’s what we always set out to do, to make a different record every time and try and perfect it and do different things. Obviously that’s not what you’re supposed to do.”

Had the band expected the album to be well received?

“I think after this long we were a bit worried that it was just going to disappear. But we did find out that it was going to be well received and stuff before it actually came out, because our press officer had sent copies out in advance and gotten really good feedback.

“What was surprising was that, I thought that by October, by the time we’d done our tour, it would have run its course, but with the end of year polls it’s come back in and it’s selling more now than it ever did. It’s won album of the year in the NME readers’ poll. Which is supposed to be a secret,” he adds, laughing guiltily.

“The critics polls are really nice but it’s only like a group of twenty people, whereas the readers’ polls are more reflective of what the kids like and that’s what we’re aiming for.”

And is Giant Steps the perfect pop album some have claimed it to be?

“Nah, not really,” Martin sighs. “It’s a good album. But I always wanted to make a ten track album full of ten hit singles, like Dare by the Human League. I’m sure we can do better.”

They so thoroughly avoided amassing predictions for success for the first five years of their existence that it would be understandable if the Boo Radleys were wary of having praise lavished on them at this stage.

“It’s a bit late for us to be hyped,” says Martin. “We’re getting a bit old for it. On the other hand, the last three or four years haven’t really seemed that long. We’re not saying, oh god, why have people only realised we exist now, because really, we only think we’ve been around for about two weeks. I can’t believe it when I read in the papers that we’ve had three albums and ten singles!”

GOLF AND KANGAROOS

Part of what makes Giant Steps so extraordinary, other than Martin’s knack for brilliant pop tunes, is the almost absurdly eclectic nature of the whole affair. It’s their first self-produced album, and sounds like it. No-one was there to tell them that what they wanted to do was impossible, so they just went ahead and did it. That streak of wilful immaturity is appropriate when you consider that most of the lyrics centre around Martin’s childhood in Liverpool. Does he feel anxious about growing older?

“I haven’t got round to it,” he laughs. “I’ve been trying very hard to avoid it. It was just something that was on my mind at the time I wrote the songs, because the people I’m hanging around with now, like Sice, I’ve been hanging around with since I was ten, so nothing’s changed that much. I suppose it was just me trying to let it all go. It has been building up, all these memories. I needed to let them go so I could start again.”

It sometimes sounds as if the songwriting is done out of necessity, in order to keep hold of sanity.

“It can be sometimes. It’s not a problem, but sometimes it’s not something that I choose to do, it’s something that I have to do, and everything else goes out the window. I throw it all up on paper. Better out than in.”

The Boo Radleys always wanted to be famous. It’s a well-documented fact that Martin and singer Sice often passed up traditional adolescent pursuits such as squeezing spots and hating one’s parents, in favour of perfecting their Smash Hits interview technique and practising getting off aeroplanes like real pop stars. “Which,” as Sice later remarked, “is bloody useless when you think about it, because you have to go through those tunnel things when you get off a plane. The only people who are there to wave to are air hostesses.” So, now that they’re pretty much bona fide pop stars, is it as much fun as they expected?

“Not in the way that we thought, ’cos we did our homework on The Beatles and we thought it was going to be limousines and skyscrapers. It can be, at times, but we thought it was going to be every day. Thank God it’s not. It’s still better than working. It’s all the better because we all had shitty jobs and stuff that we hated.”

And what about that Smash Hits interview?

“That’s what we’re waiting for,” admits Martin. “I keep telling my press officer when he says we’re on the cover of the NME, have we got anything in Smash Hits?! It was a brilliant magazine. I’m 25 now, so I was reading it when I was 11, 12, 13, and it was just really fun. Recently I had an interview with Mark Ellen, who used to edit it, and he was made up that I remembered those days.

“Actually Smash Hits got completely surreal at one stage. They had a fixation on golf and kangaroos at one point, and that’s all they’d ask people about,” he reminisces happily.

If this was Smash Hits they’d probably wind up by asking what you were going to spend all your new-found popstar dosh on.

“Oh, I dunno,” he laughs. “I really like grotty second hand shops but me girlfriend hates them and I have to hide the stuff that I buy. I like really tacky ornaments. Er, more records, more books. Pretty boring really.”n

The Boo Radleys play the Tivoli Theatre on Saturday January 22nd.