This band sets the bar for just how peculiar life can be and how quickly it can change at a drop of the proverbial beat. If we back track to early 2007, the lead singer and exuberant pianist Roy Stride and creative force behind Scouting for Girls was working a dead end job in the sleepy West London suburb of Harrow, (the same town that delivered us Hard-Fi). Yet a small catalogue of piano driven pop songs containing uplifting melodies and infectious choruses being hammered around the bustling pub circuit of London, paid off as opportunity knocked in the form of Epic records in February of 2007. By early 2008 they stormed the UK charts with four singles and a number one debut album. Not too shabby for a group of ‘likely lads’ from Harrow….

Touching down on Australian soil for the first time, they’re armed with the same energetic, enthusiastic and charismatic charm that won the hearts of the British public. Considering the Scouting for Girls self titled album had only been released a week before the evening’s gig, The Corner was surprisingly bustling with an air of anticipation. It was apparent straight away that the vast majority here were staunch fans of the band and from the first line of the first song the entire room was singing in unison back at the stage word for word. The band seemed genuinely surprised at the reception they received from this captivated and enthusiastic audience, obviously expecting a much smaller perhaps apprehensive crowd. This clearly amped the band members up as they seemed determined to make it a memorable gig as much for themselves as well as their floorstanding counterparts.

With a plethora of young UK bands, it must be hard to avoid the obvious pigeon-holing that occurs and the inevitable comparisons to other bands. SFG stand unashamedly as pop musicians, they cant be disguised as anything else, not the mass processed, overly produced, manufactured variety – but that of a homegrown talent of writing well crafted three minute radio friendly pop songs. The band members, clearly enjoying every minute of their new found pop stardom, bopped through their very ‘British’ sounding album with such fervor and eagerness. When a drunken girl crashed the stage things almost turned into a Benny Hill British farce. The singles that have clearly had a good amount of radio play on these shores as well were received with Rapture, She’s So Lovely, Heartbeat, and It’s Not About You were pounded out on the keyboard by Roy that took front and centre stage.

The songs have a certain innocence about them, lyrics that could have been written in a teenagers bedroom growing up in the 80s in the UK as these boys have done, songs about James Bond, He-Man and another about a children’s TV presenter in the UK entitled Michaela Strachan You Broke My Heart (When I Was 12). The lyrics display a naivety that the band members seemed to parallel on stage, as they certainly don’t look like rock stars, more your average university students – and genuinely thrilled to be on stage therefore making the most of a possible fleeting moment, almost expecting the dream to be over at any second. But if they can continue to write catchy infectious pop songs matched with their on stage exuberance, then I am sure we will be hearing from Scouting for Girls again.