So the story goes, one national newspaper got Basquiat Strings' record sales badly wrong when they did a report on the nominees for the 2007 Mercury Music Prize.

"The paper phoned up our record company on the day of our nomination to ask our rep how many CDs we had sold," says Ben Davis, cellist and leader of the string quintet.

"When she said 250 they assumed she had meant 250,000. They couldn't believe it was only 250."

It is a tribute to the power of the annual music award ceremony that the figure for their debut album, Basquiat Strings With Seb Rochford, has now gone up by 1,800 per cent to 4,500 sales. It's still small beer compared to Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys, but no mean feat in the jazz and classical worlds.

"It is an incredible leg-up for us," says Ben. "It is the biggest thing that could have possibly happened. Our agent was pretty keen to take us on after that because we would be guaranteed gigs."

This is the group's first UK tour, aside from a short three-date run following the Mercury nomination and an appearance at last year's Electric Proms. And with no manager or tour manager to speak of Ben is taking the brunt of it, sorting out the music - which is set to include some new compositions - and getting behind the wheel of his hired tour van.

"It's going to be hard, I'm going to be driving to all the gigs and having to play afterwards," he says. "The first gig is in Newcastle, which is the worst one. After that they are fairly well grouped together. Richard Pryce, our double bassist, was the only other possible driver - but he's just been caught speeding and had to send off his licence!"

Joining them for the Bexhill show will be Polar Bear's Seb Rochford, who supports the group's distinctive fusion of classical, pop and jazz on the album with his sympathetic drumming style.

"It was almost a painful process, musically, producing the album," says Ben. "It took a long time to get right.

"I have been in lots of bands with Seb - he's very sympathetic towards working with me. The cello produces such a feeble amount of sound compared to a saxophone or piano or the drums, but he is very aware of the overall sound we want. It's very rare in a drummer."

Ben's main aim was to bring the strings to the fore to create a powerful sound.

"I had heard a lot of similar collaborations and the strings didn't really come through," he says. "I wanted to make them strong."

First to join Ben's project were improvisational violinists Emma Smith, of the Elysian Quartet, and Victoria Fifield, who had previously worked with Sir Elton John and as part of the Graeme Stephen Sextet.

The pair introduced Ben to viola player Jennymay Logan, also of the Elysian Quartet, while Ben contacted Richard, who he had previously worked with in jazz and classical groups.

Their collective CVs include live and studio work with the likes of Kylie Minogue, Django Bates, Hot Chip, James Yorkston, King Creosote, Nitin Sawhney and even The Dixie Chicks.

"Our audiences are made up of lots of diverse groups," says Ben. "We've got strings lovers, classical composers and jazz musicians, as well as those interested in the more commercial side of music."

Now Ben is hard at work on a follow-up collection of material.

"I am totally committed to this project," he says.

"I'm hardly doing anything else apart from a bit of teaching to pay the rent. I'm focusing on writing and arranging and working all the time towards the next album.

"I know we have got to come up with another one if we are going to move on."

Support from the Portico Quartet.

  • Starts 7.30pm, tickets £12. Call 01424 229111.