It's not unusual to find divergent accounts in the mythology of a band's formation.

What is unusual is to find ones so contradictory as these. Depending on which history you read, The Rakes formed either out of a bonding session in the local Wetherspoons or a fight over a book in the local library.

And this, you suspect, is at the core of their appeal - combining sharply-angled indie with the language of the high street, The Rakes are Franz Ferdinand had the Scottish favourites got a job at a call centre rather than going to art school.

Hailing from East London, the fourpiece were picked up by the NME on the back of the Libertine's success, although critics preferred to compare them to a "post-punk Monkees".

And now they're headlining their second tour for the music mag with support from San Diego's mod-glam four-piece Louis XIV and New York's new-wave popsters The Five O'Clock Heroes. (Those unimpressed by the overly youthful atmosphere of May's New Music tour should be reassured that, this time around, it's over-18s only).

For the uninitiated, The Rakes' music hinges upon the partnership of Alan Donohoe, a vegan and a reader who landed the job as frontman because he's "capable of being a bit of a dickhead on stage" and guitarist Matthew Swinnerton, whom their producer Paul Epworth has called "a genius - so effortlessly doing all the things Bruce Gilbert was doing all those years ago in Wire, but with a modern slant".

The hype came to a head in August when the band released debut album Capture/Release, a scrappily refined, indie-punk voyage through the life of the nine-to-fiver, from going out for the third night in a row to wondering not "what" but "who" you did last night.

Donohoe's lyrics are not without wit, and even take the occasional foray into the political and the philosophical.

But clock the track title Work Work Work (Pub, Club, Sleep) and you'll get the general gist.

Newly recruited for Franz Ferdinand's November tour, on October 10 The Rakes will re-release the single 22 Grand Job, ninety seconds of arpeggio riffs, handclaps and working man's paranoia along the lines of "the bloke in sales likes her too/What am I supposed to do?/He's earning 28 and I'm on 22".

"I wrote that song about a job I almost got," says Donohoe. "That would have been the most I'd ever earned."

Keep up the good work and he won't be comparing pay packets for long.

Starts at 8pm, tickets cost £8.50. Call 01273 673311.