THE Big Moon, one of Britain’s most exciting new bands, are set to shine over Southampton next week.

Singer-songwriter Jules Jackson, lead guitarist Soph Nathann, bassist Celia Archer and drummer Fern Ford’s debut album Love in the 4th Dimension was up for the Mercury Music Prize last month alongside huge names like Stormzy, Alt J and Blossoms.

Now they headline The Loft on Tuesday and, as they packed up their van to head south from Glasgow, Celia told the Ddaily Echo that this tour couldn’t be going better for the London band.

“So far the shows have been amazing. We love playing iconic music venues like Trades Club in Hebden Bridge and Plug in Sheffield and we’re still in awe that so many people love the album.

“Songs like Cupid, Formidable and Sucker have always been popular, but now everyone’s singing along with tracks like Bonfires which have never been singles.”

It’s been a rapid year for the girls with appearances at some of the country’s biggest festivals, an American tour with Hampshire born Marika Hackman and plenty of air play on Radio One, but a lot of the hard work was done some time ago, as Celia explained:

“Recording the album feels like yesterday, but it was done more than a year ago. No band sets out to make an award nominated record, but we holed ourselves up in the studio, tried loads of ideas with our producer Catherine Marks and good things happened.

“Months later we were rehearsing a cover of Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart, which we’re playing on tour, when our manager burst in with the news that we’d made the Mercury shortlist.”

Producer Catherine Marks is having an astonishing year after also working on The Amazons’ top eight debut album. “After first recording single Cupid we were certain we wanted Catherine for our album too” says Celia.

It was the same certainty when Jules put the band together in 2014 and Celia was the last piece of the jigsaw.

“Everything worked straight away. At first we’d spend ages in our old rehearsal rooms, jamming songs and getting excited when we all played the right notes at the right time” says Celia.

“We still practice in the same chaotic way. We’ll all be fifteen minutes late, spend an hour setting up, get some food, eventually play an intense burst, then spend an hour in the café talking about how great it was. But somehow it works.”

The band headlined The Joiners in April 2016 when they also spotted the chance for some extra promotion in Southampton.

“After an interview at a local radio station Jules and I were left in one of their meeting rooms. There was a white board with a list of the station’s ‘Artists to Focus On’ with names like Adele and Sam Smith, so we sneakily added The Big Moon at the bottom.

“A couple of weeks later we heard we were suddenly getting a lot of attention in the south so it must have worked!”

The Big Moon play The Loft on Tuesday. Tickets from seetickets.

RICHARD DERBYSHIRE