Brighton's enchanting orchestral collective are riding the crest of the “Jools Holland effect” after their recent appearance on Later... brought them to an entirely new audience.

“Everything’s gone a bit crazy, but in a good way,” says singer Raissa Khan-Panni of the show, which saw the band sharing the studio with The Specials, Carole King and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

“We’d never done any telly before, and we’ve only done about 12 gigs, so it was really scary. We turned up early because we don’t have any crew – we are our crew – so we watched everybody turn up in these big lorries with all these rows of guitars and stuff, and we were sitting around with our packed lunches watching it all happen.”

The nine-piece, based in the city, may have to get used to these kind of appearances; the collective’s string-laden atmospherics, swooning drama and knack for haunting hooks make them an utterly unique proposition, and one that is fast gathering momentum.

Named after mask-wearing Medieval performing troupes, the band is the brainchild of the south London-born Khan-Panni, who has a blend of Chinese, Indian, Mexican and Russian roots. She was previously signed as a solo artist, putting out two records before she found herself “back to square one” and waiting tables.

“I really decided I wanted to go completely the opposite to being a solo artist and create a big family, with a big band and big sound that could ultimately do a gig in the Albert Hall,” she laughs. “I wanted something that could whisk me out of that life and cheer me up.”

The next step was to find a band, and in Brighton musician producer Mark Horwood – with whom she’d worked before on a cover of Nick Drake’s River Man – she found the perfect accomplice.

“He was living in this tree-house studio he’d built himself. It was a magical place with all kinds of keyboards, organs and percussion and stuff. It was really inspiring to begin the project there.

We started working together straight away.”

Being the only member who lives in London, Khan-Panni says The Mummers is very much a Brighton outfit.

“I don’t think it could have happened anywhere else. It’s completely different from London, in that musicians here are very wonderful and willing. If they’re into the music they’ll play, whereas in London it’s much harder to get people together, because life’s harder – it’s expensive, people want money, there’s no time. In Brighton there was just this pool of willingness which was great to tap into.”

Their first full-length album, Tale To Tell, revisited one of the band’s earlier mini-albums and added a clutch of new songs, and is now “completely finished” according to at least one of its authors.

“We never really intended it to be like that, but when we were doing our last recording sessions, the songs kind of fell into two houses. The first lot were about one person’s fantasy, blurring reality and fantasy elements of their life in a very personal way. But the second set of songs were broadening out into bigger themes, and other characters coming in – it just made sense they would be linked thematically.”

There are already plans afoot for another record, which the band hopes to put out in the autumn, but for now they have a hometown date to fulfil.

“We played at Komedia before, about a year and a half ago, but we haven’t really played Brighton since. It’s nice to revisit the place – after all, it’s where it all started.”

Support comes from Brighton band Glen Belt, who perform haunting, folk-tinged rock.

  • Starts 8pm. Tickets £7.50 on 0845 2938480