Pulse - music and more, with Simon Donohue

THE LONGPIGS could claim to be the only British band capable of making zany TV presenter Chris Evans shut his mouth.

The carrot-topped star cut short a series of gags on his TFI Friday show so they would have time to play his favourite bit of their smash hit single She Said.

Longpigs drummer Dee Boyle, 32, admits: "Chris Evans did us a lot of favours."

The Sheffield band, who call in at the Lancaster Sugarhouse tomorrow, have been together for five years but claim that it was the assistance of Radio One that finally led to their two Top 20 singles and album sales of 50,000 copies.

"Last year was a real good year for us," said Dee. "At the beginning of the year we played at a place in King's Cross, London, called Water Rats in front of 200 people and by the end of the year we managed to sell out the Astoria.

"Chris Evans' breakfast show and the evening session were instrumental in our success.

"We thought of ourselves as a band that was a bit too left of centre for Radio One. But people were waking up and listening to She Said while they made the tea and toast. We realise how lucky we are because 15 or 20 years ago we would have had to contend with the likes of Simon Bates and Dave Lee Travis."

The important bit of She Said which Warrington-born Chris just had to hear was the part when lead singer Crispin Hunt screams at the top of his voice.

Dee said: "We were told in rehearsal that we had to cut the song from before the scream. But Chris blew his top and shouted at his director that it had to stay.

"We met him in the pub over the road after the show and he said he was screaming along." But things haven't always been so bright for the Longpigs - a name derived from the term used by cannibals referring to human flesh.

They were all set for huge things when they signed to one of the world's biggest record labels and recorded their debut album.

"Then the US record company shut down it's British arm, which wasn't particularly brilliant," said Dee. "Elektra put a massive price tag on us to try and recoup some of the money they had already spent. So, obviously, nobody was interested.

"They would have had to come up with £500,000 to buy our contract and then find an advance.

"We spent two years in a state of limbo where we were not able to do anything and didn't want to because it would be owned by Elektra. In the end we had to tell them we were set to split up and they let us go."

But the former drummer with punk outfit Cabaret Voltaire said the group definitely benefited from the chance to start over.

He said: "We spent two years in the studio playing hard-core thrash guitar burn-outs to kill time and get it out of our systems. It also gave us a chance to listen to the album we had produced and correct the bits we didn't like. We think we ended up with a much better album by the time we re-recorded it.

"But it was a bit hairy to be built up like that with the record deal and then see the world collapse. I was even considering going to Rwanda to become a peace campaigner, just to get away from it all."

Now Dee thinks it might be the Northern grit and Sheffield steel which ensured the Longpigs and fellow Yorkshire-men Pulp never gave up.

The bands grew friendly together during their quests for success, which in Pulp's case took almost 15 years.

"Me and Richard were born in Sheffield and knew Jarvis yonks back when he was doing quite obscure things," said Dee. "They were a band who stuck to their guns. I used to go and see them when they had dodgy record deals selling just 5,000 copies of their album and only 50 people attended their gigs.

"But there seems to be something among Sheffield bands which means they will not give up."

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