Stocks are currently high in Eddie Argos: there’s an Art Brut album on the way that’s sure to confirm the band’s everyman genius (and hopefully secure them a record deal), and some scribes are even suggesting he’s the new Jarvis Cocker. So what can this reunion of the first band Argos led tell us about our hero?

It’s a move which is perfectly Argos: a love of big, romantic gestures; a post-modern deconstruction of the things bands do; the importance of ideas over ability. They are, you see, not much cop. The seven short/fat/skinny/tall blokes in their dad’s suits create a bludgeoning, clumsy sound that you would swear was fashioned by three at the very most.

But – ha ha! We’ve missed the point. For the first time we saw Art Brut we thought they were pretty awful, and yet eventually realised we were loving every minute. And whilst the Goblins don’t hold quite the same magnetism, they’ve enough jollity, ideas and wry honesty to warm the meanest muso’s heart.

There’s ‘Fuck Rock, Let’s Art’, the Goblins’ manifesto, performed with sardonic glee. Then there’s the indie-scene documenting ‘Fuck The MSP’, which contains the immortal line “Nicky Wire can suck my cock”, complete with groin-pointing. There’s the homemade cardboard signs Argos holds aloft, featuring scrawled in-jokes and scientific formulae. And to cap it all, there’s a really fat bloke who does a solo on a melodica. Which doesn’t work.

The increasingly slimline Argos is as always the charming/irritating student union situationist, shooting ‘what are we like?’ grins at the audience. But it’s pretty obvious where his heart lies: he addresses the band as Art Brut only about 1,532 times, and is amusingly disparaging of the band’s material: “Okay, it’s time for a REAL song,” he says as introduction to the stomping ‘Disco’.

Despite the fact that Art Goblins are probably best consigned to the ‘amusing interview anecdotes’ section of rock history, they still leave the stage to rapturous applause. That’s thanks to a front man who’s as charming, truthful and intriguing as we’ve had since, erm… that bloke out of Pulp. And that’s why when Art Brut finally learn to play (okay, they’re getting there), pop domination is certain to be theirs. Fuck rock indeed.

Photos by Sonia Melot