Now, five studio albums later, the band revisit old ground with a UK tour dedicated to playing Bring It On live from start to finish.

"We've never played the album in its entirety, so it's going to be pretty amusing but challenging," said Tom Gray, keyboardist, bassist and vocalist.

"EMI are releasing Bring It On to mark its tenth anniversary, so it seemed like a good opportunity to play a week of gigs.

"It will be like a greatest hits tour with hits like Whipping Piccadilly," he says.

It's not just the album that makes the tour nostalgic – Sheffield is, for half of the band, a homecoming gig, as it was while studying at Sheffield University when drummer Ian Ball and vocalist/guitarist Ben Ottewell met.

Bring it On's Mercury Award was no walk in the park – up against the Verve's Urban Hymns and Massive Attack's Mezzanine, the album beat British favourites.

But, according to Gray: "In the UK you're not played on the radio unless you become a firmament like Coldplay or Radiohead. You have your moment in the studio and then they take away the keys from your car. It's pretty impossible to have a career in British music. The myth is over before it's started in British music.

"In America bands do better – it's possible in America to get your music played on American radio and a lot of the bands haven't gone through a media wringer," he says.

"Bands are here today, gone tomorrow – it's about novelty over originality. I suppose the media are turning content over so quickly they only want to write about bands that are new or sell a lot of records but we still have a huge following."

But, despite the band's fanbase, Gomez never intended to enter the world of rock and roll as a signed band. "We just wanted a gate-fold album that we could skin up on.

"We all used to stay at each other's when we were in the band – we never played a gig until we were signed, apart from one, from which we got our name. (The band allegedly put up a sign outside the venue that read: Gomez gig here).

"We were just a bunch of mates who got together and played – we were never generic. Our music was constantly changing and we weren't considering an audience. We were just bored with music that was being played on the radio."

Gomez play at Plug, Matilda Street on Thursday.

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