Young and angry

Exeter, England, on a wet Wednesday. Last night of the tour. Brighton the previous night, cross-country again in Bristol before that. From the back of a rock 'n' roll charabanc the road to stardom looks long, even if you're the Next Big Thing . . .

It is a well-trodden road too, paved with the aspirations of a million bands who never made it. None of which interests Paul Draper, guitarist, songwriter and most assuredly leader of Britain's Mansun, the most cynical, brooding and articulate of the 'post-Oasis Britrock' pack.

Chester native Draper comes from close enough to Liverpool to be possessed of the driest Scouse wit, and his intelligent and sardonic outlook it is which colours Mansun's askance view of the world - a perspective worthy, one dares to suggest, of John Lennon.

The four-member band, due in Hong Kong next weekend, are often compared to The Beatles at their darkest and most bitter, a case supported by debut album Attack Of The Grey Lantern, named for United States comic-strip hero and avenger The Green Lantern.

Draper, 23, has crafted an album of sweeping melodies, intricate arrangements and acerbic lyrics.

'We've been compared to everybody from The Cranberries to U2 to Radiohead,' said Draper, on the telephone from Exeter. 'Blur is the latest. We're also a cross between the Manic Street Preachers and Tears For Fears, it seems. But it's a critic's job to make comparisons and a musician's job to deny them.' His facility with words means that, for some, Draper is the new Morrissey. 'It must be the quiff,' he quipped. 'People say you're like Bill Haley because you play guitar. Is Morrissey a good songwriter then? I haven't got a single Smiths record.' Rarely can one so young have displayed such venom as Draper does on Lantern, but his invective seems genuine.