Earnest Cox and I have agreed to meet up for a drink at "The Linden Tree" in Gloucester. It seems like a sensible idea, and is hardly a difficult thing to grasp, but there is one problem: I haven't got a clue who I am looking for.

Friends Reunited:

I enter the beer garden and pass a group of people who look at me oddly before progressing to the pub's interior. There I am met by a forest of people. Earnest Cox could be among anyone of these Saturday night drinkers. So I return to the garden to start my search again. Here, members of the odd looking group calls me: "Are you Stephen?" I nod. Yes I am. "We're Earnest Cox." They are absolutely right.

Earnest Cox are friends first and a band second. As with most bands, they have been formed out of the remnants and reformed parts of other bands.

In previous incarnations, Simon (bass) and La (appropriately, the singer) have been in bands together. As have Mark (guitar) and Shane (drums). And Nicky (keyboards) has worked with all of them.

A Super Group, A Mid Air Collision and A Valuable Chorister

This entangled history and the basis of their friendship is the glue that binds the band together. So it doesn't matter that they have such a varied interest in styles of music. A cursory glance around the band's record collection would reveal a liking for Mozart, African pianists, The Smiths and the Dave Clark Five.

"Actually," says Simon, "The Dave Clark Five were actually three different bands who got together to form a big super group and then split up again. Dave and Clark didn't get very far after the split, but Five became massive."

I like these people. You would too.

Simon, it turns out, is something of a spokesman for the band. Hardly matching the stereotype of the moody, silent bassist. At various points in the proceedings, he claims that the band's music is plucked from "mid air" ("we actually rehearse in an aeroplane"), that he "doesn't like to sing his own trumpet" and that, as a child, his music teacher told him he was a "valuable chorister".

This makes La laugh. A lot. Simon is referred to as a "valuable chorister" from then on. Somehow, La makes it sound very rude.

I ask more about the "mid air" pluckings of music. "It can come from anywhere," says Simon. From a riff on the guitar, a drum beat or just La's attitude."

La writes all the lyrics himself. Very rarely does he explain what the lyrics mean, although he does maintain that his songs are about everyday experiences that lots of people have.

As is his way, Simon chimes in again. He confesses an admiration for La's contribution to the band because he "treats his voice just like another instrument."He then explains that Mark is a very "lyrical guitarist". The others look at this quizzically, but Simon knows what he means. I think.

The band's output reflects this philosophy: rather than music being created from La's lyric sheets, the band's songs are more likely to be the result of experimenting until something comes along.

Bread Today, Jam Today:

The following day, I will witness something of this. Between songs, the band will jam along while Shane will sing: "Ain't got no bread to feed the ducks today/I'm going to eat it all myself." It's unlikely to be a hit in Earnest Cox's cannon, but who cares?

The band don't. Although they would certainly love to be signed and be producing an album by this time next year, the most important thing is producing music and being together. Based in London and Gloucester, their rehearsals take place in the half way house of Oxford. If a rehearsal is cancelled, they admit to feeling low the next day. At another point in the evening, Nicky explains that were one of the band members to wish to leave, it would be devastating.

Who is Earnest Cox?

Frequently, the conversation returns to talk of influences. This is odd: Earnest Cox claim to have no influences. They have music they like, but they don't believe that any particular band has influenced them in particular.

This is something common to other bands in Gloucestershire. While the charts are filled with identi-kit boy and girl bands and punk/garage bands with a definite article prefix, there are other bands, particularly in Gloucestershire, who defy genre.

Reviewers may attempt to describe their discoveries as a cross between Radiohead and the Spice Girls, fronted by Gary Numan's Beethoven fixated little brother, but such labels are, ultimately meaningless.

The band is what the band is. And Earnest Cox are who Earnest Cox are.

This is something that the band are keen to pick up on. They admit a sense of bemused befuddlement at my comparison between them and Shed 7 in my review of them.

Maybe this is because they don't want to be compared to a band widely believed to have outstayed its welcome. But there may be a simpler reason: they just don't think they sound like them.

Easy Like Sunday Afternoon:

This is proved the following day at Lansdown Studios where the band are practising. During the course of the afternoon, they rehearse songs that have already become favourites for me: "Two Can Play at that Game" (now featuring a riotous coda) and "Happy Day", along with newer songs such as "Stuntman Shoes", a very poignant melody that Simon calls a "Sunday afternoon classic". He is absolutely right.

Each song may well have a style of its own, but you can tell that each one has Earnest Cox's name on it. During the rehearsal, La displays a fondness for using a megaphone to distort his voice. Watch out for it on tracks like "No Pleasing You" and "No Joke".

Pay Attention!

As to when you might be able to watch out for such songs, you might be waiting a while. Unfortunately, the band have no gigs planned at the moment and few of their songs have been properly recorded yet. This is a huge pity as the band truly are excellent and need to be heard.

My only hope is that they are heard soon.

18/08/03 - First published on www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire