However the band have already started. There are very few patrons tonight; with venue staff I can just about count double figures. Even with all the hard work to promote this Club NME event the Roadmender still sadly looks like it's on its last legs. It hasn't helped that tonight's headliners Fortune Drive have had to cancel. Unfortunate victims to the theft of their transit van containing their musical equipment, they simply just can't play. The girls however still play as loud and as rowdy as they can to those that are present.

After they finish I briefly speak with their sound engineer. I'm told to wait until I am approached by one of the girls holding a loaf of bread. The aforementioned girl is lead vocalist Elizabeth Berg codename 'Z Berg' who walks around the room frantically, clutching the bread crying out 'where is the guy?' Being 'the guy' I introduce myself and am led to the dressing room. Inside it is revealed that the loaf of bread is to help ease the band's recent craving for post gig toast. Using my experience of 'student days' I suggest that a spoon makes a good knife replacement so that a topping can be added. Once added, Z takes a bite and then sinks into the sofa. Sitting comfortably? Ok let's begin.

So why include an NME club as part of the tour?

"We basically wanted to get out there and play wherever we possibly could, so that in a couple of years anybody knows who we are," she says taking another bite of toast.

If you look at the band's website there are some photos of the girls standing against gig posters that show a lot of British dates. This was no Photoshop wizardry; they had been to England before.

"We toured here a little bit. We actually mixed our record here so we played at the Barfly about six months ago. We were living in the Columbia for about a month mixing our record," she says laughing. >>