Hometown: Peckham, London.
The lineup: Sauly Adamczewski (vocals), Jak Payne (guitar), Charlie Elliott (guitar), Federico Quickstix Vampire Von Behr (drums), Joe "Curly Joe" Pancucci-Simpson (bass).
The background: The Metros, like The Subways, missed a trick when they decided not to call themselves The Underground or The Tube, because they couldn't sound more quintessentially London-esque if they sang about corblimey trousers and plates of meat. The singer's got the lairy yelp of Kevin Rowland while the band pack the inebriated punch of early Madness/Dexys when they were still flirting with the ska-pop and mod-rock revivals. Their debut single Education even has a Dexys' style title with its Pt 2 suffix while the artwork has the period feel of a Barney Bubbles pastiche or homage - in fact, Bubbles used to design the sleeves for the late, great Ian Dury, whose son Baxter, incidentally, is The Metros' producer. As for the music on that single, it's so jauntily upbeat and infectious with its nagging guitar refrain, rolling drums and call-and-response vocals from frontman Adamczewski and the boys in the band, it almost seems like a cover of a comedy novelty new wave-era one-off like, say, Turning Japanese, that frenetic 1980 ode to onanism by The Vapours. The lyrics somewhat undercut the mood of jollity, with their references to Asbos and geezers with shooters, and Adamczewski's expletive-ridden fury at the British school system ("Education's overrated, and I'm the monster that it created").
No wonder The Metros, formerly The Wanking Skankers, were the first band invited to enliven the audience at Lily Allen's semi-disastrous new TV show and ended up playing to over 25,000 people last year during support slots with Jack Penate, The View and The Coral and festival appearances at T in The Park, Bestival, Hackney Underage Festival, Brighton Great Escape and Skegness Big Reunion Festival. It also makes sense that they're on 1965 Records, home of The View and Ripchord, run by James Endeacott, who famously signed The Libertines to Rough Trade - they've got the slovenly urgency of Doherty and Barat's first band. Sounding not unlike the Libs has helped win The Metros, barely old enough to drink legally, a huge following on the underage gig circuit, while the mums and dads of the teenies at their shows are being mollified by the cartoonish frenzy of their fun punk (as opposed to funk-punk). But then, when your parents' CVs include designing record sleeves for Captain Sensible (Adamczewski's old man) and playing session bass for Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook (Payne's), you're always going to have a little bit of a feel for this kind of grimy Sarf Lahndan rumpus.
The buzz: "A glorious drunk-funk racket."
The truth: It's good-time late-'70s via early-'00s urchin punk'n'roll with a cast of characters straight out of an episode of Minder.
Most likely to: Go down lovely with a greasy spoon fry-up. Least likely to: Go down lovely with a fruity Chardonnay.
File next to: The Vapours, The Lambrettas, Secret Affair, Ripchord.
What to buy: Debut single Education Pt. 2 is released by 1965 on March 17.
Links: http://www.myspace.com/themetrosband, http://www.themetros.com
Tomorrow's new band: Surrounded.