Boyan Chowdhury and Russell Pritchard, two parts of the five piece that make up the sum that is The Zutons are sitting in the meeting room at the Medina on Crown, puffing away at cigarettes as they wait for their breakfast.

“Eggs,” says Pritchard to the retreating publicist – “lots of eggs – and brown sauce…”

‘Brown sauce?” She quizzes

“HP Sauce,” I shout after her. It seems you can take the lad out of Liverpool but you can’t take Liverpool out of the lad.

The boys suck hard on their ciggies as though they are the only thing keeping them warm, before Chowdhury asks: “Is it going to be like this at Splendour?” When I answer in the affirmative  he is dismayed. “Here’s me in me shorts and vest… we thought ‘hey we’re coming to Australia’. We thought it might be cold here (in Sydney) but not like this. We thought Byron, oh it will be so nice and hot…”

“What about the girl yesterday – showing us her Wellies,” interjects Russell. “I haven’t even got me coat.”

Once the lads get over their disappointment (nope they won’t be coming home with suntans) they confess they are more than happy to be returning to Australia – we were after all, one of the first countries to embrace their brand of psychedelic cartoon punk lashed rock. In the interim since they wowed the crowds at Falls Fest they’ve pulled off some pretty big name supports including playing second fiddle to REM and U2.

“They’re a bit like a training session or something,” says Pritchard, likening these big arena supports to a rehearsal. “Though it’s doing something like you’ve never done before,” he continues “and it’s very different to doing your own show. It’s good to see the higher levels of bands and that – and how you do a gig to that many people. There’s no way around it, you’re playing to 50-60 thousand people, and all the lights and the size.”

“It’s a  big thing,” offers Chowdhury. “Because there’s some person way at the back that  you can’t even see and you have to learn to perform at that level. And it’s a good opportunity to play to people that obviously haven’t heard us before – ‘cause they’re ignorant…” he laughs.

Thanks to the band’s relentless touring schedule and a new album release, there would be few that hadn’t heard of The Zutons. The band are finding that people are paying more attention to their performances than ever before.

“A lot more people are taking notice of us from this album to the first album,” says Pritchard. “It’s a bit daunting sometimes – when we do play live, we do kinda play to your expectations  but then there are still always people looking for something. But we’ve just got our heads down and are doing the work. There’s always that question about how much pressure there was doing the new album, but the main pressure was just getting these songs down.”

While there is little doubt that fame and fortune have come the way of The Zutons since their second release, Pritchard says ultimately this has just made the band “more focused”.  “I don’t really worry about the pressure,” he continues. “You just gotta do what you do. Someone’s always gonna dislike it. People sell loads of albums and people could be the biggest band in the world and some average kid on the street can say ‘that’s the worst band ever’. It’s just opinion.”

So he doesn’t care what the critics write, then?

“It’s good when you get good press – but it’s good when you get bad press too,” he laughs. “It’s funny – people slagging you off.”

Which begs the question – what is the worst thing The Zutons have been called?

“Damp Squid” chuckles Russell. “That was the headline. We’d done these photies with a rain machine – and we did look like that. So it was funny.

“There’s always gonna be someone that dislikes you. But it’s some person you’ve never met – they might be into Level 42 for all you know.”

So what kind of music are The Zutons digging on at the moment?

“I’ve just got into the Raconteurs,” say Chowdhury.

“They’re the Sabateurs down here,” says Russ.

“Yeah, the Sabateurs,” says Boyan in his lilting Liverpool accent. “It took me a while to get into – until they released that single.”

“It’s a boss album,” agrees Russell. “I got into the Flaming Groovies – this band from San Francisco in the seventies – and the Stones. There’s  bands you just like all your life.”

We waste a couple of minutes discussing Keith Richards latest headline grabbing antics – his recent pardon by the Governor of Arkansas for a driving misdemeanor some twenty previous.

“Ah you gotta give to him, says Boyan. “He’s 60-70 years old and he’s still got that fire in his belly.”

Something tells me, give the Zutons another 30 odd years and they’ll still have a ‘fire in the belly’ too.

The Zutons Tired of Hanging Around is out now through Sony BMG