A first major gig was supporting the Rolling Stones (in Hyde Park already!), and there have been appearances on the Graham Norton and Jools Holland shows and a Rising Star award at the BRITs. And all this before the release of the often-deemed “tricky” second album.

The Tablet will shortly review a new book by Paul Elie called The Last Supper (subtitled Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s). Its thesis is that the arts underwent a “cryptoreligious” turn in that now impossibly distant decade, appropriating the symbolism, ritual and outward trappings of formal religion (otherwise believed to be drowning under the bow-wave of “secularism”), but to make essentially irreligious statements. The 1980s are long over, thank the Lord, but with the scent of end-times possibly even stronger now, what should we make of the fact that the hottest pop band of the moment, and there isn’t much argument about this, is kicking off its greatly anticipated second album with a track called “Agnus Dei”

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