With protesters lining the streets of the capital, high unemployment rates and the general politicisation of the populace, the time is right for a new politically conscious band.

With the release of their second album, Music For The People, Coventry trio The Enemy could well be that band.

For evidence, just look at some of their lyrics, as on Don’t Break The Red Tape where frontman Tom Clarke sings: “Welcome to England, where there is no fun / Where there is no choice for any of us / There is no left, there is no right / New Labour’s a joke, just another Thatcherite.”

Or there’s the Jam-like Nation Of Checkout Girls, taking on Napoleon’s old stereotype of the English as a “nation of shopkeepers” with a modern twist.

But what could further cement their world-beating position is the fact the follow-up to their number one album, We’ll Live And Die In These Towns, is a real swaggering rock ’n’ roll album, much like the ones they used to make before indie got a stranglehold on the mainstream.

Drummer Liam Watts puts a lot of this development from the band’s 2007 debut down to simply taking some time to write it, unusual for most artists who make it big on their first album.

“As soon as we finished the first album we carried on writing songs,” he says, after the first of their two homecoming gigs at the Birmingham Academy.

“We had three months to record the first album. For this album we have had two years to think about it. We’ve spent a lot of time on it.”

That extra time and production is clear from the album’s anthemic opener, Elephant Song, which is a hark back to epic first tracks on albums such as Bon Jovi’s New Jersey, where the anticipation builds before an explosion of sound.

“It was a big statement,” agrees Watts. “That first track coming back was to show we aren’t just an indie band, we are more of a British rock band. Rock and punk is more in our roots than indie.

“We had about six singles off the first album. It is nice to enjoy making some album tracks.”

Much of the first album was made while the band was still getting together – trying to rehearse and hold down day-jobs.

It foretold much of what was set to happen in the UK nationally, by focusing on what was going on in their home city at the time.

“People were losing their jobs in Coventry,” says Watts. “Now it is happening around the country.

“We will always write about what is going on. It’s not good to write about stuff you haven’t got a clue about – although there are good bands such as MGMT who I don’t know what their songs are about – it’s just us, we write about stuff we can see.”

Watts feels the UK is becoming more politically aware, in line with the US, which they toured when Barack Obama was campaigning to become president.

“In the US, everyone had a political stance,” he says. “In the wider world, people are a bit more aware. It’s everywhere on their faces, in the papers, on the news.

“I don’t think our music will necessarily make them more aware, though. People come to our gigs as escapism and to go mental.”

  • 7pm, £17.62, 01273 709709