HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL immerge from post-industrial wasteland to pitch for pop success. James Attlee reports.

"I'm prepared for people to rip us all down and call us hypocrites and misquote us and I'm not bothered about all that. I know where I am with God and I know where God is with me."

As to the logistics and sheer commonsense of a Middlesborough band playing gigs in London...

"You can't let it bother you - it's something that if you think about logically you just wouldn't do. You don't sit in a van for ten hours sweating to come and sweat for another three quarters of an hour jumping up and down playing songs. It's just it's our job - we do it because it's all we're good at. If we were businessmen we wouldn't be doing it, we'd be out making money somewhere."

If there's any justice - if the record buying public can be weaned off mutant Madonnas and ninja turtles - this group might just find that playing their music and making money aren't mutually exclusive. Right now there's room for a little honest music. It could happen they deserve to be huge...as they say: Hope Springs Eternal.