Proving that the shambolic spirit of lo-fi indie guitar pop will never die, London-based American trio The Lollies are tonight giving us a tour through their own personal history of punk. Which means that within half an hour we get sassy Noo Yawk Noo Wave with Richard Hell-shaped jagged edges (‘Big Massive Fuck Off Attitude’), shimmering, effects-laden power pop, and plenty of two-minute jangling sweetness that could easily have been nicked wholesale from Talulah Gosh’s linen drawer.

Lollies singer Kate St Claire plays the cute card a little too much at times: bespectacled, her hair in bunches and forever self-effacing, but when she starts singing about “the beautiful boy with the long brown hair”, whilst tugging her guitar about like a Ronette waking up lost and hungover in CBGB’s, you want to cuddle her and carry her satchel home from school.

New single ‘Channel Heaven’ is a direct steal from The Seekers’ ‘Georgy Girl’, while another song is a blatant attempt to fuse The Crystals’ classic ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ with Meri Wilson’s cheesy 70s hit ‘Telephone Man’. Every song is a trashy, often tinny lesson in no-frills punk-pop, up to the moment where they realise their previously knackered pedals do work and turn them all up full and mutate into something resembling a goth band. And really, you just have to fall for a band who can squeal the line “Oh my God, I just shagged the boss!” in the middle of a song. The spirit of punk then, and not a skateboard in sight.

Victoria Waterfield