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Within the bowels of the 100 Club, two decades converge. Amidst the bustle of the crowd, the tight-legged jeans and thick-rimmed glasses of the archetypal indie-pop followers mingle with go-go boots and geometric shift dresses. For one night the ‘60s have returned, kept on life support by the well-harmonised triad of God Help The Girl.

Lying in wait, and I do mean lying (Broken chair: Rookie seating mistake #1), I begin to feel chills make their way down my spine – not so much excited apprehension as to do with the air conditioning unit placed directly above my head (Rookie seating mistake #2). Soon the murmur of applause begins afresh as members of ‘The Girl’ make their entrance, commencing with the dulcet tones of Catherine Ireton, leading on a hypnotic rendition of ‘Act Of The Apostle’ that seems perfectly suited to introduce the band, subtly snaring the attentions of the crowd.

With great timing, and a polished precision typically untenable to live performances, the combined sound of Ireton, Celia Garcia and Alex Klobouk, set atop a motivating and inflective set of instrumentals, provide for an enthusiastic evening. However, such enthusiasm may not have been purely associated with the music, as the songstresses emit more jubilance than seems possible, truly presenting a natural affinity with performance. By the track ‘I’ll Have To Dance With Cassie’, they are happily shuffling away, vitally shimmying in a line mirroring a true ‘60s girl-band.

With a complementary rendering of tracks from album God Help The Girl and their Stills EP, each song is presented devoid of nerves, with vocals and expressions unwavering. By the time we reach ‘Musician, Please Take Heed’, it seems more than likely that these girls aren’t quite the ‘Girl’ they sing about, for these girls don’t need ‘all the help’ they can get, ably delivering well narrated songs with confident zeal. Similarly, the rendition of ‘Saturday Night (Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week)’, whilst belying the intimate atmosphere of the club, provides something new on certainly one of the wettest nights of the week.

As the fifty-minute set comes to a close with Stuart Murdoch joining in on ‘Perfection As A Hipster’ to the intense pleasure of the crowd, it seems a perfect end to what was initially posed as a thirty-minute show. I manage to tug the ear of Murdoch, who despite obvious fatigue (partially to do with over ten hours of travelling and a fire in the hotel) was highly approachable and confirmed that Belle & Sebastian would not be put on hold as he works past the third draft of the God Help The Girl film, with a potential record to fill the intervening period.

Catriona Irving’s EP Sitting On The Shelf features all the serene qualities of a hauntingly melodic voice reinforced by an undertow of collaborative instrumentals, courtesy of members of The Sleeping Years. Though using particularly simple lyrics, the beat of her title track is not only catchy, but it invokes that favourable head nodding that comes with an easy-to-follow tune. The rhythmic pulse and easily interwoven lyrics slip this song into place as a great walking tune, ideal for merrily dawdling through the city.

Not content with taking a load off and sitting in the corner, let alone being put on the shelf, the band Naomi Hates Humans alternately offers a more gruff voice to the life of the city. Powerful and tipsy, the vocal talents imbued in their eponymous EP are compelling and full of purpose, finding similarities to both The Decemberists and, in part, Cold War Kids. Compared to the upbeat and almost innocent introduction offered by Irving, Naomi Hates Humans delivers an almost venomous start with ‘Half The Man’, which, whilst honestly delivered, is lacklustre.

Elsewhere on the EP posed by this supposedly, according to the press release, ‘hateful’ band, it becomes apparent that the introduction was in fact the selfsame false start that haunts the dreams of every athlete. In ‘Tightly Choreographed Moments’, we are treated with a vocal performance reminiscent of the dance of a seemingly embittered puppet or marionette, jerkily flowing as the instrumentals both set the stage and provide a path for her to tread. The track implores the listener to haphazardly move through the lively steps sung by Naomi Scott, with lyrics that usher in the transient biography of the romantic situation. The following track, ‘Heroes Like Us’, seems more of an extension to this track than its successor, though the changing pace set by drummer Sagar Patel and guitarist Lewis Young provide a starkly enjoyable contrast to the unwavering momentum of Scott.

With Irving, though, the song line-up that follows her lofty start is perhaps a little less spectacular, though undoubtedly finds a place alongside similarly melancholic bands such as The Hush Sound. With ‘Untitled’ and ‘Measurements’ we are offered slight glimpses of a peaceful but slightly sorrowful haven, fleeting and forgettable.

To conclude her EP, Irving and DJ Julien Plaisir De France offer a remix of ‘Sitting On The Shelf’, truly enhanced by layers of male vocals and otherworldly synths, though changing the day-to-day tune into something that seems unable to exist on either the street or the dance floor. Contrarily and to their credit, Scott and her band offer libation in the form of the quite uplifting finale ‘Some Things Are Worth Getting Your Heart Broken For’. Containing the same dips and dives of previous tracks, it finishes the EP in a truly reflective manner, almost a polar opposite to the repelling introduction.