News of a band headed up by the former tub-thumper with Therapy? and My Little Funhouse wouldn’t normally be the kind of thing to get yours truly over-excited. But on reading that Graham Hopkins is latterly influenced by the likes of the Beach Boys, Teenage Fanclub, The Beatles and (gulp!) A-Ha made this an altogether more inviting, if intriguing prospect.

Swapping a drum-riser for a Telecaster has clearly been a good move for Hopkins who looked comfortable and confident fronting this tight outfit on their album launch night. That said, the opening couple of numbers were fairly standard power-pop fare – kind of a classy blend of Fountains Of Wayne and Matthew Sweet. The harmonies were a bit dodgy at times but to be fair to Hopkins, he was suffering from a bad cold, which he said, “made his voice sound like a cross between Bonnie Tyler and Marge Simpson’s sister”.

They soon settled into a more comfortable groove pouring forth songs from their debut Head On.

Ranging from the jangly, melodic variety to more hard-edged riff-oriented numbers the songs were impressive, the current single ‘Underneath The World’ a clear winner with enough memorable hooks and a near anthemic chorus to make it a potential hit.
Oddly one of the highlights of the set is a wonderfully irreverent cover of Nik Kershaw’s 1980’s er, classic, ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good which not only showcased the band’s versatility but injected a shot of humour into the situation (they even threatened to cover Starship’s ‘We Built This City’ but thankfully declined the opportunity).

Incidentally, I heard no less than five different pronunciations of their moniker on the night (Hay-Light being the correct version, I believe) so expect to hear more than a few DJ’s getting into a tongue-twisting lather over the coming months.