There are only so many things you can do with three chords and a barely tuneful voice. So we can all be grateful that Sevenoaks School based The Footprints, have eschewed school boy garage band stylings in favour of intelligent lyricism and imaginative melodies.

Their latest gig was part of the Sevenoaks Town Festival, on Saturday 20 June, where they performed a set of their own songs to a highly appreciative audience of drinkers and shoppers.

After the gig, I caught up with them to find out more. They are the epitome of charm and boyish enthusiasm for their art. With no particular spokesman, they replied to my questions either in turn or, more often than not, all at the same time.

In between signing autographs (they are already signing autographs!) and fending off groupies (they already have groupies!), they tell me that that they are 17 and 18 year olds who met at school. The current band fomation has been around for about two years, although Max (vocals and guitar) and Leo (vocals and drums) claim to have been in a band together since they were eight!

Citing The Beatles and Coldplay and Strauss amongst their influences ("the last one's a joke", adds Bassist Ollie) The Fingerprints have a large pool of musical resources and references to draw from - even Gilbert O'Sullivan.

They are a very British sounding band and should probably be name dropping The Kinks, Belle and Sebastian and The Beta Band in their list of influences as well.

However, there are references to musical styles from long before even The Beatles and The Kinks. They do barber shop harmony, sleazy nightclub piano jazz, and some of their singing even sounds like it would not be out of place in the court of Henry VIII. The word "eclectic" could have been invented for them.

Irritatingly, for a band of 17 and 18 year olds, they already have an album out (Cards on the Table, Clothes of the Floor) from which most of the songs performed at their latest gig were taken.

I ask them what they like to write their songs about. The reply is "Girls, Girls and Girls".

But this is too simplistic a summary of their output. While some songs may be about girlfriends past, present and potential, they are hardly crush ridden spotty teenagers.

There is thought to the lyrics, particularly in the album's "Holly" and "Straw into Gold", both moving accounts of the sadness that has affected girls they have known. Both songs can only rival the poignancy of The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home" or Ben Folds Five's "Fred Jones". This is excellent stuff.

Even the seemingly throw-away songs have thought to them. Sociologists and Gender Theorists will have a field day studying "Bad Hair Day". The narrator has an eye of a girl who rejects his advances using the excuse of a "bad hair day". His solution is simple: he books a trip to the hairdressers. Male logic at its best, this jokey song sums up a large part of the human condition. How do they do it?

Other songs performed are: "Angel", a perfect love song that seemed to encapsulate the warm, sunny day they were singing in; the early Blur/Madness-y "Ode to a 747"; and "Slow Down", dedicated to 'Rachel' which, like so many of their other quieter songs, if full of advice to "slow down" and take it easy.

With thoughtful lyrics such as these, it seems these boys have a wisdom, song writing and musical ability way beyond their years. The Fingerprints deserve to make it big. Very, very big.

In the meantime, before they become rich and very, very famous, plans are being made for more gigs and a new album to be recorded later in the year. Songs featured will be "Tangerine", "Better Crowd", "All the World" and "Get Away". Their plan is for the music to have a much broader sound.

'It should be more developed,' two or three of them say in chorus, before adding as a disclaimer, 'We like to think.'

They don't need to "think" anything. Judging by their form so far, anything is possible.

23/06/03 - First published on www.bbc.co.uk/kent on this link