Straw's parents obviously never warned them about tempting fate. In 1998, they released 'Moving To California' containing the legend "If we get dropped I will sail out the window./Clutching the artwork to my debut single/...I don't want to talk about it. I'm just glad we've failed."
And what happened? A few months later, they got dropped. Perhaps they've learned - tonight, with the ink still drying on their new contract with Columbia, that single doesn't get a look in, despite the constant clamours for it.
Instead Straw are here, oozing optimism from every smile-expanded pore, to showcase next year's album and persuade us that they're more than the Supergrass/Shed Seven copyists with the odd flukily fab tune that some of us had them down for.
They come on grinning so broadly that you want either to hug or puke over them and singer Mattie, resplendent in foul yellow mod leather jacket (which you just want to puke over), puts on his best eyes-closed Liam pose and begins - and they don't sound like Supergrass or Shed Seven!
Sadly, that's because opener 'Wurly' is an unimaginative beery stomp from the Stereophonics school, aided and abetted by dodgy acoustics. The majority of the new stuff isn't vastly more inspiring, though it doesn't sound quite so much like it was penned by Kelly Jones.
The turgidity of 'Sunday Best' is only broken by some flat falsetto - "I'm waiting for the world to end" warbles Mattie , and you can well believe it as the song ambles along at a pace suited to doing absolutely nothing for endless periods of time.
Meanwhile, main track of new EP 'Watching You Sleep' sees them trying to be Oasis, with a lumbering whiny, soppily-worded "I'm held in your little hand"- 'Little James' anyone?- ballad.
Still, the occasional newie such as 'This Is The Future' manages to break through the forgettables with a shimmering arrangement or a joyous explosiveness (albeit muddied by the sound quality) redolent of their album 'Shoplifting's finest moments.
But it's only really those oldies - 'Anthem for Low Self Esteem', 'The Aeroplane Song' - not forgetting an extempore snippet borrowed from Axl F, that really live up to the fans' perpetual merry-jumping, head-nodding fervour, and Mattie's looks of orgasmic pleasure.
They may have proved they're not just Supergrass/Shed Seven copyists, but the odd fab tune still seems a bit of a fluke.
