The last time I heard the word pipette was just before an explosion during a fifth-form chemistry lesson.

But then Ros, Julia and Becki and their rotating band, The Cassettes, are a bit of a musical explosion, in the best possible way.

Mix together a tight Phil Spector-style wall of sound, strong vocal harmonies, synchronised hand jiving, enough polka dots to drive you dizzy and a good dollop of 21st-Century attitude and you have The Pipettes.

Unashamedly retro, the girls have taken selected highlights from the Sixties and catapulted them into the Noughties. A little bit like the B52s but without the scary beehives.

The girls sing sassy songs of teenage angst - bad boys, schoolgirl rivalries and forbidden love - all neatly summed up in tongue-in-cheek, politically incorrect songs such as Tie Me To The Kitchen Sink and Dirty Mind.

Wearing mini dresses, waving pom-poms and carefully choreographed, Ros (the brunette), RiotBecki (the blonde) and Julia (the redhead known as The Duchess), are almost cartoon-like. But the sound blows you away.

Nine of them squeezed into the sweaty pit that is the Freebutt and the girls were barely visible to most of the standing audience.

But, despite the stifling conditions, songs such as Really That Bad brought the house down, with One Night Stand probably the catchiest of the set.

The Pipettes' name, dreamt up by Cassette Monster Bobby, is designed to stir the imagination to somewhere between Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Ronettes and a mad scientist.

They have already backed Brighton stars British Sea Power and played the ICA in London but are as yet unsigned.

Some might sneer at such perky pop but I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more of The Pipettes in the future. They could even help make chemistry cool again.