Teenage dreams of rock stardom started for the South Londoner when he formed a
short-lived band called Jack's Basement with schoolmate Felix White (now
guitarist in The Maccabees). After its demise he headed out as a solo artist to
play every spit and sawdust bar and club that would have him, and started to
garner mainstream interest when the spiky indie pop of EP Spit As Stars was
given relentless airplay by BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe. Grouped together in the
press with fellow young Londoners Lily Allen, Jamie T and Kate Nash (he's
sometimes referred to as a male Kate Nash...) deb...