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.

So, with another parallel looming, does his seething demeanour, at least on record, make him the 1990s Pete Townshend? 'Probably, but that's nothing new,' he said. 'There are two reasons for putting a band together. One is that you're angry and disillusioned, the other is that you want to be on the telly. It freaked me out at first - doing gigs on the telly. I'm not bothered now though, I enjoy it.' And the pressure of stardom? 'I don't know what pressure is,' Draper said. 'Pressure is if people are ignoring you, I suppose.' Mansun were not, apparently, named after murderer Charles Manson, although any connection would fit Draper's outlook well.

His sarcasm and savage humour are never more acidic than when directed at the church, personified for him by two track characters: the transvestite Stripper Vicar and his alter ego, Dark Mavis. Clearly, his reaction to what Draper admits was a 'strict Catholic upbringing' has become a rich vein of material - one also drawn on to give the band an image.

Probably irretrievably lapsed in his Catholicism, Draper wears eyeliner and nail varnish on one hand on stage, while cross-dressing has its uses for the group.

'We're like any good rock band: a big bunch of contradictions.

'You don't practise what you preach,' Draper said obliquely. 'When we have a video to do we like to go out shopping; we don't want to be completely camp, but we don't want to go round wearing trainers all the time either.' Unfortunately, Mansun's borrowing of imagery from across the gender divide has caused problems on nights out, Draper admitted. 'There are some psychos who try to kick your head in,' he reflected.

'They do it because they recognise you, and because you're that tart who wears nail varnish on one hand.' Once a leader in the getting-into-trouble field, guitarist Chad has already sampled rock 'n' roll's excesses - before the band has even 'gone stadium'.

'He's on the wagon now,' Draper asserted. 'Has been for six months . . . although he did waver a bit over Christmas.' Any Rolls-Royces driven into swimming pools? 'No,' said Draper. 'But I did catch him, p***ed out of his head, driving a yellow steamroller on a building site.' Draper the brusque cynic and Draper the committed Everton Football Club fan have Draper the sensitive, passionate artist as their alter ego: he will admit to having written songs since his teens, and to having 'loads of ideas, millions of them'. Asked if he thinks he has a precocious talent, he replies: 'If it seems like that it probably just means everyone else is crap.' A second album is in the works. But Draper, contradictory as ever, says that where Attack bore the imprint of Pink Floyd, the next record will be 'completely different; we might do a disco album - something like the Bee Gees'.

Surprisingly, Draper maintains he has no plans for global domination.

'I've no idea what I'll be doing in five years,' he went on. 'I probably won't even be in a band. I might have gone solo like George Michael.' But before that, Mansun have Hong Kong to charm when they play a showcase gig at the Hard Rock Cafe as part of a promotional tour also taking in Tokyo.

Well on the way to demi-god status in Japan, Malaysia and South Korea, Mansun are treating Hong Kong as an unknown quantity. But Draper is enthusiastic about the territory - and imagines Mansun playing a part in its history.

'I don't know much about Hong Kong, but I can't wait to go.

'The architecture looks amazing,' he said.

'I'd love us to be the last British band to play there, on June 30.

'The sun sets on the empire as Mansun play Take It Easy Chicken, blasting out propaganda as the Chinese come in and arrest us for brainwashing the people.' Far-fetched? Perhaps. But there is not much you would put past Paul Draper.

Mansun play a showcase at HMV (Tsim Sha Tsui) at noon on April 13, and at the Hard Rock Cafe at 9pm. Entry to Hard Rock Cafe is by invitation only