Introducing... Mystery Jets

SOMETIMES success is all about being in the right place at the right time. Take Mystery Jets here for example.

Two years ago, the London indie band were part of an NME tour that included Maximo Park and The Arctic Monkeys.

Hyped to the hills, the tour made a huge name for said bands, going on to achieve both mainstream and critical success. But what about Mystery Jets?

While the quintet may have been in the right place, the band have yet to gain the widespread acclaim of their peers – but that looks set to change.

For tonight the quartet bring their kooky and unorthodox brand of music to The Hive, intent on proving why they're just as good – if not better – than their contemporaries.

Currently on a 32-date tour, the band's Edinburgh gig is an opportunity to promote tracks from their latest album, Twenty One.

Rooted firmly in 80s production values, where the band's first album was ramshackle (the drummer used kitchen pots and pans) and at times indulgent, their second album is packed full of shamelessly radio-friendly pop songs.

As guitarist, William Rees, says, it's a far cry from the days when people referred to them as a prog-rock band.

"We definitely don't consider ourselves a 'prog' band anymore," says Rees.

"When we started out as a band of pre-teen whipper-snappers, prog-rock gave us a world in which to submerse ourselves."

Now, though, "I'd say that each song has its own laws and codes of conduct. Our job is to try doing what's right for each song, make sure it follows the influences from which it is inspired in an exciting and apt fashion.

"It's a hard question 'describe your sound' – I just think we're hell bent on never repeating ourselves."

Obsessed with the music of Syd Barrett, Mystery Jets formed in the early 90s when the group's shock-headed frontman, Blaine Harrison, was only 12.

They called themselves the Misery Jets, in honour of the Heathrow-bound jets that habitually roared over their native Eel Pie Island, and changed their name when Blaine (who, again, was very young at the time) realised he misspelled "misery."

Essentially a family project, it features Blaine on drums, Blaine's 57-year-old dad, former architect and designer Henry Harrison on bass (and later guitar); and Blaine's friend William Rees on guitar.

Kai Fish joined up as the group's bassist and Blaine switched from drums to keyboards. The group tried out a drum machine and a local kid named Max before finally latching onto drummer Kapil Trevedi.

At gigs, the silver-haired appearance of Henry soon became a big talking point for both fans and critics alike. And just last year, he was named "18th coolest person in rock" by the NME.

These days, however, Blaine's dad prefers to concentrate on the band's songwriting and recording in the studio.

"We're a great team, the two of us," says 22-year-old Blaine Harrison, who was born with spina bifida. "But having him on tour can be frustrating. It's a watchful eye over you all the time. It's a cliché, but being in a young band on tour is about excess – you play a gig and you're given a box of beer, you get drunk and do silly things.

"Having Henry there probably means I do fewer silly things than if he wasn't there. It's not that he tells me not to, exactly.

"Say, after a gig we're going to go out to a club, he'll say to me: 'Blaine, don't get too wasted.' But it's more like what a big brother would say.

"There'd be no Mystery Jets without him, but maybe one day I'll be touring with another band and I'll realise how cool it was having my dad on tour with me.

"When I'm with the band I call him Henry. But do you want to know something really embarr-assing? When we're on our own I still call him daddy."

• Mystery Jets, The Hive, Niddry Street, tonight, 7pm, £10, 0131–556 0444