We don't need two haircuts at once to achieve success, my girlfriend isn't Kate Moss and I don't have a crack habit that gets me on the front of the papers.

"We wanted to make a record that talked about our lives, that our friends and people like them could relate to. We wanted to highlight that the streets are our stage - everyone is a star of CCTV."

So speaks Richard Archer, singer and frontman of Hard-Fi, whose debut album - actually named Stars Of CCTV - has exploded to the extent that they now rival Ali G as Staines' most famous cultural export.

Recorded on a minimal budget in their own Cherry Lips studio (a converted cab office) the album was released this summer. It was quickly hailed by legendary American producer Rick Rubin as "a landmark record" and received a second major boost when it was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

The fact that the prize ended up going to Anthony and the Johnsons didn't matter a bit - for a DIY record from "the arse end of West London" to make the shortlist was in itself a considerable achievement.

"It meant a lot that we'd put the record together for £300 in a lock-up somewhere and were nominated alongside people like Coldplay," says Richard. "The budget of our album was probably about as much as they spend on their macrobiotic yoghurts."

It's precisely this everyman quality that's the key to Hard-Fi's success, as drummer Steve Kemp explains: "There's a lot of scenes out there we've never really felt part of.

"The Kaiser Chiefs seem to know all the bands from the Leeds scene, then there's Maximo Park and the Futureheads who come from the Sunderland scene, there's the Glasgow and London art-rock scenes.

"Then there's us, from Staines, just doing our own thing."

The result is a band with far broader appeal. Their lyrical themes - being skint, doing a job you hate and living for the weekend - are close to universal, putting them in a lineage of men of the people that stretches from The Specials to The Streets.

"Richard writes lyrics that are about everyday life," continues Steve.

"They're easy to relate to, people in pretty much every walk of life get the lyrics.

"I mean, everyone's had no money at some point, everyone's been thrown out by their girlfriend."

But as their success grows, there's surely a danger that Hard-Fi will find it increasingly difficult to remain engaged with such everyday concerns, threatening their major strength.

Aside from the Rick Rubin endorsement and the Mercury nomination, they've already played Lollapalooza in the States and Manumission's 11th birthday bash in Ibiza. There's a Japanese tour approaching shortly too - all of which must make it pretty tricky to keep one's feet on the ground.

This tour, then, could be your last chance to see Hard-Fi before they're altered by success - although with the tour sold out before it began, you could be too late already.

Starts at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £9 (SOLD OUT). Call 01273 673311.