Most clients, whether private or corporate, work on a principal of trust, when entering into a contract. For example where by when a booking confirmation is made, it is common knowledge and accepted that the booking will go ahead and if not a cancellation fee will apply if the cancellation is made much in advance, otherwise a full fee is payable.

A concert promoter will have to at least pay 50% in advance to confirm the artistes and another 50% a few days before the concert, for some reason if the concert does not sell enough tickets, the performers will still have to be paid the agreed fees in full unless a percentage for bookings is agreed ahead of  concert.

When a pub or restaurant owner or management book a musician, irrespective of whether the pub has enough clientele, the musician needs to be paid the agreed amount, unless the musician agreed to a percentage of the takings on the door.

Music Agents generally have no issues with payments from corporate clients, goverment clients and most private clients, however a handfull of independents pubs, clubs and restaurants have sometimes been known to cancel at the last moment and to try and avoid paying the musicians after they finish playing or to pay them less from the agreed fee.

So how can musicians and music agents avoid this?

1) Always ensure a signed contract is used when dealing with independent business owners, as this tends to make the proprietors more responsible towards the booking.

2) Always ensure a 50% deposit is paid in advance and the balance 50% is taken on arrival.

Though the court accepts email confirmations as legaly binding formal documents, most individual do not see this as a formal document, when they are trying to avoid any liabilities that they are responsible for.

Claiming unclaimed monies once a relationship breaksdown is not easy and is complicated. The first the step is to issue a letter of demand, followed by a claim form.

Taking legal action should be a last resort if other options don’t work. It can be expensive and there’s no guarantee you will get the money you’re owed.

1)Speak to the person who owes you money. You may be able to informally agree a plan to get the money repaid.

2) If that doesn’t work, you can write a letter. Tell them:

• how much they owe
• what it’s for
• what you have already done to try to get the money

It’s important to include information like:

• who’s involved – the name and address of both you and your the person who owes you money
• dated copies of all paperwork relating to the debt
• a date by which you expect payment (at least seven days)
• a request for them to put in writing any issue or dispute they have with your statement
• details of the steps you will take if payment isn’t received

Avoid:

• being drawn into heated arguments or lengthy correspondence
• threatening legal action that you’re not prepared to follow up

3) Use a solicitor 

If you’re not able to come to an agreement, it can be helpful to discuss your case with a solicitor who’s experienced in debt recovery.

For a fee, they can write a letter to the person who owes you money. The letter can tell them that legal action may be taken if they don’t pay. A solicitor’s letter can produce quick results.

Talking with a solicitor can also help define your case in legal terms and help identify further action that may be available to you.

Sometimes solicitors will work to a fixed fee. If they are charging an hourly rate, this is usually no less than £50 per hour.

—————————————————————————————————————————————–

Here you can see an interesting correspondence between an independent restaurant owner and a music agency, whereby the restaurant owner decided to completely cancel the band at the very last minute with no compensation (4.00pm. the gig starts at 6.00pm)  and says he will not pay the band if they turn up but would send a cancellation fee. If he does not pay them when they turn up, can his word be taken that he would actually send the music agency or the musicians any form of compensation?  The musicians turned up as scheduled and were told to leave, with no compensation though they had given up numerous better paying gigs.

The conversation starts off quiet reasonably but as the day progresses the restaurant owner sees that the weather is not improving and the chances of him making a good income is beginning to disappear, he then implies, like a plumber a musician should not be paid if he is not required, the agent goes on to explain about the time sensitive nature of the booking. The restaurant owner’s response in the end is, he does not want the musicians to arrive at all and he has not signed an agreement. Now if the agency did not send him a band, and he turned round to take leagal action, would the restaurant owner have accepted that he was not sent a band because he did not sign a contract, or would be have claimed the email confirmation was sufficient? The restaurant owner here fails to see that common law will take precedent,  contracts are formal agreements but when in dispute can be disputed where there is a signed agreement or not.

Case Study – Alex Kersjes The Bowler Restaurant London

Lets analyse the correspondence below as a case study.

fromFelicity felicity@the-bowler.com
toAccounts MFL <accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk>

dateFri, Jun 10, 2011 at 11:05 AM
subjectBooking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
Important mainly because of the people in the conversation.

hide details Jun 10 (6 days ago)

Hi
In Felicity’s absence I just wanted to confirm the booking for a three piece acoustic jazz band for Thursday 16 June from 18.30 to 21.30 for Jazz at the Park on Wandsworth Common. Booked through Titus. Please can someone confirm today which band will be playing on Thursday and what time they will arrive to set up. Please can someone call me asap on 07766334310.
 
Thanks
Louisa Robertson
 
Felicity Edwards – Events Manager
 
 
20 Bellevue Road | SW17 7EB | London
M: 07800 532 751 | T: 0208 767 9677
              www.the-bowler.com

_____________________________________________________________________________________

the correspondence above from the company email address, clearly states the booking has been confirmed, this email will be accepted in a court of law as legally binding.

______________________________________________________________________________

fromAccounts MFL accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk
toFelicity <felicity@the-bowler.com>

dateFri, Jun 10, 2011 at 11:21 AM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because you often read messages with this label.

hide details Jun 10 (6 days ago)

Dear Louisa,
Thank you for your email.
The first band is a Gypsy Jazz Band confirmed for the 16th, I will
call you on Monday for a chat as I am travelling today.
Many Thanks
Titus

Felicity felicity@the-bowler.com
toAccounts MFL <accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk>

dateFri, Jun 10, 2011 at 11:32 AM
subjectRE: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
Important mainly because of your interaction with messages in the conversation.

hide details Jun 10 (6 days ago)

Thanks Titus that’s great. Speak to you on Monday
Felicity Edwards – Events Manager
20 Bellevue Road | SW17 7EB | London
M: 07800 532 751 | T: 0208 767 9677

              www.the-bowler.com

Accounts MFL accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk
toFelicity <felicity@the-bowler.com>

ccinfo <info@the-bowler.com>

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 2:05 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because you often read messages with this label.

hide details 2:05 PM (3 hours ago)

Dear Louisa/Michael/Alex,
 
As per the confirmation below, the band will be arriving to peform, please ensure as agreed the full invoice is paid.
 
There was an ocassion where the full invoice was not paid when Suzi Balingall performed, I did not pursue it, I hope we can avoid that tonight.
 
The cancellation last week costed us £150.00 as it was done early, but this booking requires the full fee, please refer to the invoice that I sent.
 
 
Like I mentioned it was very difficult to secure these professional bands for your dates at your budget, but I managed to do it.
 
Bands can’t be cancelled at the last moment as it cost us money and cost them money, these musicians are full time musicians and Thursdays to Saturdays are the days they work during the week.
 
Please feel free to call or email me if you have any questions.
 
Kind Regards
Titus Raj – BA Music MA Entertainment Law
Senior Bookings Consultant
Music for London Ltd
02079938007
www.musicforlondon.co.uk

frominfo@the-bowler.com
reply-toinfo@the-bowler.com

toAccounts MFL <accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk>,
accountsmfl@gmail.com,
Felicity <felicity@the-bowler.com>

ccgavin@hospocheck.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 2:14 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bysrs.bis7.eu.blackberry.com
Important mainly because of the words in the message.

hide details 2:14 PM (3 hours ago)

Titus

Thanks you for your email.

I appreciate it is frustrating and it is very disappointing for us also.

I understand that there will be a cancellation fee but it surely cannot be 100%. The services of 1 member is still required if possible. As for the others they will not be delivering a service so should expect full payment. I am prepared a small inconvenience fee in the interests of our expanding relationship.

Please advise.

Best regards

Alex
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Hi Alex,
 
The cancelation fee can be made if there was enough notice, but at the moment there isn’t. Your company reconfimed this booking in writing 3 times. Your venue has already cost £150.00 two weeks ago, which we have absorbed in view of future business.
 
Like I mentioned these dates were very difficult to secure.
 
The full fee will be required as we would have to pay it either and pass on the cost to you, this is the 3rd time that this is happening to us and unfortunately we are unable to take on any further losses.
 
You need to understand the MU can cause you and I unecessary inconvenience and several legal issued if we choose not to pay musicians that have been booked by us. I hope this information helps and I hope the weather clears up enabling you to use the musicians.
 
Kind Regards
Titus Raj
0207 993 8007
www.musicforlondon.co.uk

fromAccounts MFL accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk
toinfo@the-bowler.com

ccFelicity <felicity@the-bowler.com>,
gavin@hospocheck.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 2:27 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because you often read messages with this label.

hide details 2:27 PM (3 hours ago)

Hi Alex,
 
You must understand the musicians have given up their income from elsewhere today to be at your venue, you cannot let them down by not paying them their dues.
 
Titus

frominfo@the-bowler.com
reply-toinfo@the-bowler.com

toAccounts MFL <accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk>,
accountsmfl@gmail.com

ccFelicity <felicity@the-bowler.com>,
gavin@hospocheck.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 2:30 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bysrs.bis7.eu.blackberry.com
Important mainly because of the words in the message.

hide details 2:30 PM (3 hours ago)

I don’t agree.

Nor do I believe a court would agree. We do not require the service, it will not be consumed. I will not pay for it.

We only require one musician, which I am happy to pay for.

May I suggest, as an inconvenience fee, 30 to each not playing and 100 to the one that is playing tonight.

Many thanks
Alex
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

fromAccounts MFL accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk
toinfo@the-bowler.com

ccFelicity <felicity@the-bowler.com>,
gavin@hospocheck.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 2:44 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because you often read messages with this label.

hide details 2:44 PM (3 hours ago)

Hi Alex,
 
We have successfully claimed back all monies owed to us for various reasons through the legal system, it is lengthy and unnecessary. I can assure you the court looks very favourably at artistes, please lets not go there.
 
Your company and two of your staff  made the booking and your company needs to be responsible for that booking. You need to understand that very basic principle that someone has given up their income to work for you and you are then cancelling at your convenience.
 
Please lets not go there as it is very unnecessary stress for the both of us, please just make the payment and find a away to use all the musicians, maybe get them to play as two duos.
 
Many Thanks
Titus

info@the-bowler.com
reply-toinfo@the-bowler.com

toAccounts MFL <accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk>,
accountsmfl@gmail.com

ccFelicity <felicity@the-bowler.com>,
gavin@hospocheck.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 3:00 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bysrs.bis7.eu.blackberry.com
Important mainly because of the words in the message.

hide details 3:00 PM (2 hours ago)

Titus

As an example. If I booked a plumber and it transpired I did not need him, if I called him I to cancel I would not expect to pay for his time. If he turned up before we cancelled certainly a call out fee would be applicable but certainly not for his lost time where he could be plumbing elsewhere.

The same principle applies here, I am not bound to offer you anything but I am kindly doing so.

Please advise so we make alternative arrangements should you not accept my generous offer. There are plenty of musicians looking for work tonight.

Regards
Alex
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Accounts MFL accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk
toinfo@the-bowler.com

ccFelicity <felicity@the-bowler.com>,
gavin@hospocheck.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 3:14 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because you often read messages with this label.

hide details 3:14 PM (2 hours ago)

Hi Alex,
 
The are not plumbers , their engagements are date and venue specific which is a time specific contract. When you have the time please visit this website, http://www.musiciansunion.org.uk/
 
Our terms and conditions are clearly laid out when we sent you the invoice.
 
When you book a venue for an event and you can’t turn up at the last moment, they will still charge you the full fee, its what you call a time sensitive contract and booking musicians are based on a time specific contract.
 
I will leave tonight in your capable hands and your abiding personal and business practice and principals.
 
I  hope you will stand by your contractual agreement for our mutual benefit and your continued good reputation.
 
Kind Regards
Titus Raj – BA Music MA Entertainment Law
Senior Bookings Consultant
Music for London Ltd
02079938007
www.musicforlondon.co.uk

info@the-bowler.com
reply-toinfo@the-bowler.com

toAccounts MFL <accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk>,
accountsmfl@gmail.com

ccFelicity <felicity@the-bowler.com>,
gavin@hospocheck.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 3:49 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bysrs.bis7.eu.blackberry.com
Important mainly because of the words in the message.

hide details 3:49 PM (2 hours ago)

Titus

For clarity. Firstly they are specialists who are remunerated on a time basis, the principle is the same.

I am not aware of any contract being signed. If I have I would of course abide by the terms therein. An invoice is not a contract, if I sent you an invoice for the time spent on this issue today with terms on it I doubt you would abide by the terms, let alone pay it.

To confirm my position, there is no money due to your performers. As a gesture of good faith I will pay each of the 3 30 pounds for any inconvenience. Should there be any further discussion, argument or should they show tonight I will withdraw my offer and nothing at all will be due.
Best regards

Alex

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Accounts MFL accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk
toinfo@the-bowler.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 4:17 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because you often read messages with this label.

hide details 4:17 PM (1 hour ago)

Hi Alex,
 
Thank you for the kind offer,  the band is already on the way and I am unable to contact them, if you could kindly pay them direct, it would be much appreciated.
 
Your staff also agreed to feed them, if you could kindly do this and use the musicians if required, it would be much appreciated.
 
Just for your future information, an email confirmation and details is accepted as a formal document, plus at the bottom of the invoice all the terms and conditions are set out very clearly, a signed agreement is not necessary to form a contract.
 
Kind Regards
Titus

Accounts MFL accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk
toinfo@the-bowler.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 4:38 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because you often read messages with this label.

hide details 4:38 PM (1 hour ago)

Hi Alex,
 
I cannot contact them, they are in the tube travelling to you.
 
Titus

info@the-bowler.com
reply-toinfo@the-bowler.com

toAccounts MFL <accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk>,
accountsmfl@gmail.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 4:55 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bysrs.bis7.eu.blackberry.com
Important mainly because of the words in the message.

hide details 4:55 PM (57 minutes ago)

You should have contacted them hours ago.

I presume you have left a message to prevent their wasted journey from the tube.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Accounts MFL accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk
toinfo@the-bowler.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 5:02 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June
mailed-bygmail.com
Important mainly because you often read messages with this label.

hide details 5:02 PM (51 minutes ago)

Hi Alex,
 
The phone got cut off, I did not get the chance to leave a message, I am sorry about that. You only mentioned you did not want them to turn up and were not going to pay them at 4.00pm, prior to that you were saying you were going to pay them a cancellatiion fee and you were going to use one musician at a time as per the earlier confirmation with another one of your staff called Michael.
 
Kind Regards
Titus

To
Mr. Alex Kersjes
The Bowler Restaurant
20 Bellevue Road
SW17 7EB
London
Dear Sir,
My apologies that the booking could not go ahead , as the cancellation was at the last minute, we need to pay the musicians in full as per our terms and conditions as state in our invoice.
The cash payment agreed was not paid today, please make a BACs payment within 3 working days.
Music for London Ltd
HSBC Bank Baker Street
Sort Code :40 01 06
Account Number: 9218 8618
Attached is the copy of the invoice for your perusal.
Kind Regards
Titus Raj – BA Music MA Entertainment Law
Senior Bookings Consultant
Music for London Ltd
02079938007
www.musicforlondon.co.uk

The Bowler info@the-bowler.com
toAccounts MFL <accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk>

ccgavin@hospocheck.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 7:32 PM
subjectRE: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June – Invoice
Important mainly because it was sent directly to you.

hide details 7:32 PM (7 hours ago)

Titus There is no money due.  There is no contract and no agreement exists that we would pay anything on cancellation. You are correct a contract does not need to be signed but there has to be an acceptance of terms to form an agreement. One side can’t just say “this is how it is going to be”. We have never, nor would we ever accept the terms you are trying to apply.  Fair notice was given, you were warned earlier this week. You said, “no problem, just let me know”. You have no claim or legal standing. Sending an invoice with terms with does not constitute an agreement, there certainly has been no acceptance of this term at all from our position, implied or otherwise. Most damning, as you quite rightly point out, that you have accepted cancellation in the past without attempting to enforce such a term, therefore precedent is on our side also.  I gave a fair and generous good will offer that you refused and for the avoidance of doubt now withdraw.  We have not received a service from you and we cancelled with plenty of notice to prevent your musicians travelling here.  Regards Alex   20 Bellevue Road | SW17 7EB | LondonM: 077 89 888 750 | T: 0208 767 9677               www.the-bowler.com

ccounts MFL accounts@musicforlondon.co.uk
toThe Bowler <info@the-bowler.com>

ccgavin@hospocheck.com

dateThu, Jun 16, 2011 at 7:55 PM
subjectRe: Booking for Jazz at the Park, The Bowler Restaurant 16 June – Invoice
mailed-bygmail.com

hide details 7:55 PM (7 hours ago)

Dear Sir,
Re-confirmation was made via email yesterday, please check your server for outgoing emails. Invoice was accepted and a time change requested, which means the invoice was read. Confirmation was made by phone again yesterday evening.
Confirmation was made by your staff on the phone again this afternoon. You finally cancelled them completely at 4.00pm when the musicians had already left for your venue. All the emails are recorded.
Cancellations in the past were made with at least 24 hours notice or a few days notice, not two hours before the gig.
Like I said, this was a band that gave up lots of higher paying gigs to do this for us as we wanted to do it for you as you were our regular client.
If you can reflect with an open mind , you should be able to judge for yourself it your actions have been fair to the musicians.
You could have paid them the compensation if you had wanted to when they arrived, which I even thanked you  for in advance.
If you can kindly pay us half £150.00 by BACs, we can then pay the other half and this can end here because this will drag otherwise.
I really wanted to avoid the both of us spending our valuable time on this.
I will leave it with you.
Kind Regards
Titus

RollingStone.com: All News

RollingStone.com: All News

O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London

The sharply dressed man finger-snapping onstage toured with Prince as a teenager, became a pop star in the US in his 20s, produced a handful of classic records in his 30s and is now settling smoothly into his role of urbane soul-pop auteur. Raphael Saadiq stands on the edge of the stage, cupping his ear for more applause; he shakes hands with the entire front row, twice; he even filches someone’s mobile phone and fiddles with it, every inch the star.

Saadiq is not exactly a household name in the UK, but his latest records – last month’s Stone Rollin’ album, and its predecessor, 2008′s The Way I See It – crown a Zelig-like career rich in the pleasures of vintage rhythm and blues. He is the kind of guy who can get Stevie Wonder out of bed in the dead of night to lay down a track in the studio. Saadiq’s last big gig before this tour was leading the band at the Grammies in February, when Mick Jagger performed his Solomon Burke tribute. Wielding his guitar, the exuberant Saadiq bounded most undeferentially around Jagger at the very front of the stage as though to say, “this is my music, buddy”.

Tonight, Saadiq leads a seven-strong outfit that might have been lifted straight out of a 60s soul revue – men in berets, a backing singer in white go-go boots and matching hairband – armed with tunes that all sound like forgotten classics. “Sure hope you mean it, sure hope you love me girl,” Saadiq sings doo-woppishly. Is it the Temptations? No, it’s just a flashback to “Sure Hope You Mean It” from his last album, a record steeped in Motown and Philly soul.

“Don’t mess with my man, don’t mess with my boy,” glowers Saadiq’s go-go girl. It sounds like another canonical work, but it’s the catchy and assured single by Saadiq’s old band, Lucy Pearl. “Don’t Mess With My Man” made it into the UK top 20 in 2000, and it is greeted with a roar of recognition. The gig is bookended by two bouts of “Staying in Love”, the knock-down, standout track from The Way I See It, a fabulous song about how easy it is to fall in love, and how tricky it is to stay that way.

It could almost be a metaphor for Saadiq’s set tonight. The vintage authenticity of Saadiq’s works is never in question. His easygoing sound is so very easy to fall for. Saadiq is a master of the old arts, having assiduously tended the flame of vintage soul well before it was fashionable to do so. When Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black (2006) unleashed the floodgates on retro, the Oakland-born, LA-based Saadiq had already been at it for years. His late-80s multi-platinum R&B group, Tony! Toni! Toné!, featured real instruments and a throwback song-and-dance feel. Saadiq went on to lend various clients his skills in the 90s, culminating with troubled neo-soul pin-up D’Angelo, who released two classic albums and then plunged into drug-related obscurity. Saadiq co-authored D’Angelo’s “Untitled (How Does It Feel)“, which won a Grammy in 2001. As Saadiq tells it, he cheekily popped into the studio to cadge a spliff off D’Angelo, and ended up penning neo-soul’s minimal masterwork.

Over the course of a two-hour performance, however, Saadiq’s relentless perkiness can flatline a little; so much un-embellished nostalgia can seem a little trite. Stone Rollin’ – Saadiq’s latest album – offers up a take on black pop and rock’n'roll, which is the next logical place for Saadiq the revivalist to go. But the Beatles-y “Radio” feels slight, like a less interesting rerun of OutKast’s “Hey Ya”. You yearn for a little of the mischief that Saadiq displayed at the Grammies. It is the eve of the royal wedding, and it can occasionally feel like we are witnessing the slickest wedding band on earth.

And then, suddenly, a switch is pulled, and Saadiq’s set comes alive again. “Good Man” is one of the new album’s outstanding tracks, a meditation on lost love and doing right whose excellent video, incidentally, features Cutty from The Wire. The drama tonight is compromised only slightly by an extended guitar solo whose attempt to invoke Prince doesn’t succeed.

Saadiq returns for the encore a changed man. He has swapped his wedding band threads for jeans, a red T-shirt, a natty hat, and more of Stone Rollin’s compelling dark side. “Over You” is a fantastic psychedelic soul track. It all ends with “Go to Hell”, a rousing tune in which Marvin Gaye looms large. It lays bare a little of the inner workings of a man whose smoothness might otherwise feel just a little plastic.

Music: Music + Live music reviews | guardian.co.uk

RollingStone.com: All News

Digital, Brighton

Outside, at the end of a sizzling April day, the horizon has vanished – the sea is exactly the same deep ozone blue as the sky. Inside this sweltering, sold-out beachfront venue, Metronomy are playing their lustrous new album, one inspired by the British seaside.

As homecoming shows go, this one is touched with a glorious serendipity. You have to practically crunch shingle to get here. Metronomy’s main-man, Joseph Mount, used to live in Brighton, and his keyboard player, saxophonist and cousin Oscar Cash, still does. Some of the crowd have clearly been sipping cider on the beach all afternoon.

“This is the closest this song has ever been played to the sea,” notes Mount cheerfully, introducing “The Bay”, a song from The English Riviera, Metronomy’s third and definitive album. Gilded with falsettos, it’s a winning baroque disco track that couples a sense of yearning with a defiant sense of place. “This isn’t Paris,” Mount sings chippily, “This isn’t London, and it’s not Berlin, and it’s not Hong Kong.” Perhaps in tribute to the flashing lights that draw you to the end of the pier, his band – Cash, drummer Anna Prior, and bassist Gbenga Adelekan, who has a parallel career as a DJ – all wear oversized white badges that light up in synch with the beat. There are shout-outs to various Brighton neighborhoods, lived in by students and bohemians.

Mount grew up along the coast in Totnes, far from any cogent musical scene, fashioning his own tastes from what was available on the radio, and yearning for a terrific time that he always felt was just out of reach. He left, of course – for Brighton, and a spell as a jobbing drummer while he got his bedroom recording project off the ground. Metronomy’s name reflects Mount’s enduring tendency towards the tick, tick, tick of a perpetual motion machine. Although Mount’s pop instincts are strong, and getting more irresistible by the album, this is very much a club show, with the band playing a tireless mix of popping beats and bright synths, virtually unlit except for those flashing white badges. It may not be the reference point Mount would choose, but Hot Butter’s “Popcorn” repeatedly springs to mind.

Metronomy’s breakout second album, Nights Out (2008), was heavily in thrall to the sounds of the early 80s and firmly wedded to the idea of a good time; it moved Mount to London, earned him critical acclaim, a brace of remix credits and – unexpectedly – the admiration of Girl Aloud Nicola Roberts, who sought him out as a writing partner for her debut solo album.

Its follow-up is miles better. An early candidate for album of the summer, The English Riviera reimagines Mount’s native Devon coast as a nippier version of California, a place of saturated colours and ease, undercut with a very English sense of the bittersweet. Like Steely Dan played on Fisher-Price instruments, it also recalls, in part, the sour club-pop of LCD Soundsystem, early Depeche Mode and the warm soft-rock of cult French heroes Phoenix. The album’s cover image is by obscure British graphic artist John Gorham, featuring a stylised palm against a background of azure and yellow stripes. It was previously used to advertise Torquay, Paignton and Brixham. Perhaps Metronomy are waiting for the budget to incorporate the album’s strong visual sense and seductive mystique into their set-dressing. As it is, their performance remains a little ragged around the edges, quirky and cute with hand gestures and banter, but not quite the equal of their album’s considerable allure. It’s a crying shame, too, that because Mount’s duetting partner, Roxanne Clifford of the band Veronica Falls, is absent, Metronomy don’t play one of The English Riviera‘s soon-to-be-ubiquitous tracks, “Everything Goes My Way” – a song about falling in love again, against the odds.

They do, however, do justice to their other putative summer hit. Tense and fidgety, “The Look” captures the claustrophobia of a small town, where everyone moves in the same ever-decreasing circles. Among a multitude of nagging keyboard hooks its theme proves especially difficult to dislodge. Finally, a heroic Moog keyboard solo that wafts in from a kinder, warmer, distant place, ready to whisk Mount’s troubled protagonists away.

Music: Music + Live music reviews | guardian.co.uk