The National joined by Chvrches' Lauren Mayberry for ‘I Need My Girl’ performance

Because they’re not Taylor f*cking Swift, The National don’t normally feel the need to wheel out celebrities on stage at concerts, and usually go it alone.

At Treasure Island Music Festival in San Francisco at the weekend however, they thought it might be nice to invite Chvrches’ Lauren Mayberry on stage - presumably a big fan of the band (who isn’t) - who leant her vocals to Trouble Will Find Me’s tearjerker 'I Need My Girl'.

Her delicate vocals contrasted nicely with Matt Berlinger’s huskiness, especially when the pair sang together on the final chorus.

The National are now starting to think about their next album, for which they have sketches of 30 songs already - currently under the working titles of various towns in upstate New York.

They’re not sure what ‘sound’ the LP is going to have, and intend on keeping it that way.

Asked if they had an idea of what the new record would sound like, Berninger told NME: ”No, not really. Everybody's been talking about it and people have different ideas about what kind of record they want to make.

“But every time we all talk about that, it never helps anyone figure it out. It's never a very good creative catalyst to say 'I'm going to make this kind of record'. It's never been that helpful for me at least, let's just wait to see where things go organically and naturally.”