Dan Gillespie Sells is the "happiest man in the world" right now.

Could it be because his band are in the BBC's top three acts to watch in 2006? Or that their single, Sewn, is getting airplay on the country's biggest radio shows and they're days away from a sell-out tour? No.

"I've just brought a piano from the auction house down the road for my house. It's gorgeous and I got it for £450," he says. "I could just talk about my piano for the whole interview."

Getting him off the subject takes some doing, but when we finally manage to move on to other subjects it's clear, as his jaunty music suggests, that Dan is as upbeat about everything.

"We are so excited about playing Brighton because we know lots of people down there," he says. "On the last tour we couldn't find a venue, so this time it's going to be brilliant."

Ticket-holders are lucky - the band are playing smallish venues because the tour was arranged before Sewn was plugged by Chris Moyles, Jo Whiley and the like.

"Promoters didn't want to give us bigger venues. Now we're getting all this airplay, venues are selling out and I'm saying 'I told you so'."

But isn't it the done thing to bask in the grimy vibe of intimate clubs? "Some have a real affinity for sweaty indie gigs," says Dan, "but I've never seen us as an indie band. I don't want to play in toilets. However small the room, we try to turn it into an arena."

The Feeling met ten years ago at music college in London. Dan, a Londoner, spent his holidays in Sussex, where his bandmates hail from (Horsham, East Grinstead and Crawley). A stint working as a covers band in the French Alps drove the band to record their own material.

After three months playing Walk Like An Egyptian to drunken snowboarders, they returned to London and vowed never to play a cover again.

It's not just their rousing piano pop that has got them noticed. They happily list ELO, Supertramp and The Carpenters as their influences.

"We don't want to come across as people who are trying to be cool," Dan says. "Although lots of people now say to me they love ELO, so maybe we're not that uncool.

"Anything else there is to say about us comes across in our music. If you try to talk about deep stuff you sound like a dick."

After this tour, The Feeling are on the road again, supporting The Charlatans.

"I'm a big fan," says Dan. "I understand Nineties indie more. It's more song-driven. These days it's a bit too stylised, with all the tight jeans and angular hair.

"Our stuff is about the melody. We want to make people clap their hands. We want to put a smile on their faces."

Starts at 8pm. Tickets cost £5, call 01273 603974.