By Roger Lytollis

Last updated 11:37, Thursday, 12 June 2008

Jonquil are not your average band. They may have been a century or so ago, but these days all too few young men hit the road armed with such instruments as melodicas, reed organs, glockenspiels, dulcimers and whistles.

Jonquil: Playing The Brickyard

The ‘band that time forgot’ make their Cumbrian debut on Saturday night and their departure from three-chord guitar riffs and songs about drugs and gangs has not left them short of admirers.

Jonquil’s fans include Radio 1 DJs Huw Stephens and Rob Da Bank. This patronage has helped the band secure a set at Glastonbury, two weeks after this Saturday’s gig at The Brickyard.

“Huw Stevens has played us a lot,” singer Hugo Manuel tells Nightlife. “That makes a big difference. It gives us a bit of kudos and it gives us opportunities. At Glastonbury we’re on the BBC Introducing stage, which is for acts chosen by Radio 1 DJs.”

Word is spreading but there are still plenty of punters who are surprised by Jonquil’s olde worlde sound. The band started in 20-year-old Hugo’s Oxford bedroom as he recorded with a large assortment of old instruments.

“I started off in the bedroom, messing about, nothing serious. I put together an album and then realised I’d have to play live so I put a band together with some friends from other bands.”

Jody Prewett, Ben Rimmer, Kit Monteith, Sam Scott and Robin McDiarmid play a variety of instruments including guitars, drums, piano, accordion and flute, but there’s always room for more.

“I’m a big fan of the bass clarinet,” says Hugo. “Perhaps we could find room for someone to play one of those.”

New album Lions was released last month. Their debut Sunny Casinos is described in the band’s publicity as “10 beautiful and engrossing dark gentle songs, dense summer drones, fairground field recordings and creeped-out dusty attic music... fizzing, clattering, wheezy and slowly blossoming, twinkling and gossamer-like”.

Jonquil cite their influences as The Zombies, Fleetwood Mac, Nancy Sinatra, Four Tops and many more. The many more includes “old maps, drawings in biro, metal piping, flowers, DIY, stripes, bird song, piles of leaves, Bill Hicks, red bricked buildings, terraced housing...”

What emerges is six bookish Oxfordshire chaps making intriguing, sometimes eerie, music on medieval instruments.

Not your average band, but who wants another one of those?

Support at The Brickyard comes from Leeds-based band Held By Hands and from Motive Sounds DJs.

Tickets are £4 on the door or through Ticket Web, which can be reached at www.thebrickyardonline.com