Pop: Shed Seven

No one would ever mistake Yorkshire's roguishly disarming youth popsters, Shed Seven, for Yankophiles. With short hair, Fred Perry shirts and a bravado whiff of ridiculous self assurance that's straight out of Blur's 1992 patent, it's little surprise labels like 'mod-punk' and - horrors - 'New Wave Of New Wave' have dogged the group this year. Thankfully, there's more to the fact that they've scored two hit singles and a Top-20 album in Change Giver (Polydor).

At the heart of Shed Seven's appeal is their memorable way with a glucose-centred pop tune (many sweat at it but few can actually pull it off) in songs like 'Mark' and 'Dolphin'. Plus, there's the ghost of The Smiths in the Sheddoes chiming chords, putting in a friendly, but not too overwhelming, appearance.

Presently the band is in the spreading-the-word business, with its longest British tour to date, and preparing for the release of the fourth single of 1994, 'Ocean Pie'. It was quite recently going to be the irresistibly passionate 'Long Time Dead', but lead singer Rick Witter admits, 'We could have recorded it better. We should have forgotten about the song and concentrated on the sound - it's too raw. 'Ocean Pie' gets away with it a bit more. But recording is all part of the learning process.'

Shed Seven play the Astoria 2, Charing Cross Road (071-434 0403) on 27 Oct, pounds 6 adv