"I think I'm just going to spend all my money on expensive tissues - that's going to be my rock 'n' roll extravagance," announces a very sniffly Katy Klaw, one half of lo-fi Brighton duo Peggy Sue And The Pirates.

Klaw, and bandmate Rosa Rex, have just played the first night of their UK tour at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut - the legendary Glasgow music venue credited with kickstarting the careers of Radiohead and Oasis, among others.

"We were really scared about it," says Klaw. "King Tut's is a big venue. It actually went really well, but now I'm ill and Rosa's on the path to it."

Current sickliness excepted, it's been a good year for the old schoolfriends. They have supported Swedish indie rockers Peter, Bjorn and John and toured with songstress-de-jour Kate Nash, whose no-frills Estuary pronounciation and kitchen-sink rhyming couplets seem to have had a big impact on Peggy Sue songs like Superman, sample lyrics: "Superman why are you crying?/ What can there be to be so sad about when you're so good at flying?"

"He said Oh Peggy Sue, I don't know what to do/ I keep being played by all these different actors/some of them are great, but some of them are w***ers."

They have also just released their first single, Television, a love song to a "beautiful distraction", that was released on their own label and bears the stripped-back vocals, close harmonising and catchy guitar riffs that are becoming the girls' trademark.

Klaw says the vinyl-only format has led to some of their younger fans getting an unexpected history lesson.

"When we were on tour with Kate (Nash) a lot of 15 year olds were saying, What's this? It's not a CD'. We heard a lot of them had got their mums to buy them record players just so they could play the single.

"It's great," she laughs, "We're getting people to regress."

Following the tour, the pair have "vague plans" to make an EP with London band Left With Pictures, whom they met during their early days gigging in London.

With all their plans and ambitions, it is easy to forget - Klaw at least - is still a student, studying Film and American Studies at the University Of Sussex.

"I think possibly my uni work has suffered a little for the music," she admits, "but I've always got my essays done and everything. The tours are always fitted round my work - I finished term on Friday and started the tour on Saturday."

What do her fellow students make of her second, rock 'n' roll existence, I ask her?"There's only a couple of people who know. Most people just think that I disappear off every now and then."

The girls are looking forward to returning to the familiar territory of Brighton, having last played the Barfly in August.

Klaw says: "The Duke Of York's is so beautiful and we've just found out we're allowed to project a film during the gig. I'm voting for Home Alone because it's got loads of great scenes in it. And if we f*** up, people can look at that instead."

Support comes from indie-folk band Noah And The Whale and special guests yet to be confirmed.

  • 8.30pm, £7, 0871 7042056