Radio 1 DJs are not renowned for making great music. The recorded output of Tony Blackburn, Dave Lee Travis and Kenny Everett may be memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. So why should The Shirehorses, aka Radio 1's drivetime jocks Mark Radcliffe and Marc "Lard" Riley, prove any different?
In their favour, the boys certainly have an enthusiastic crowd behind them. With seemingly every male student in west-central Scotland crammed into the venue, tonight's act could hardly get a warmer reception. Just as repetition of each radio catchphrase is greeted with hoots of approval, so too are Mark and Lard's spoof covers of recent indie hits.
Sorry, did I say "spoof"? According to Radcliffe, the Shirehorses have been the victims of plagiarism at the hands of almost every British guitar band. Blur's Country House is, apparently, just a rip-off of their own song about being trapped in the sticks with a corpulent wife: "I live with my spouse, my very big spouse in the country." Travis's Why Does It Always Rain on Me?, we learn, was lifted from Mark and Lard's paean to having to endure inappropriate cheese backstage, Why Is It Always Dairylea? And, to the delight of the undergraduates in the audience, we discover that the Manic Street Preachers' Spanish civil war opus borrows heavily from the Shirehorses' assault on substandard lager in student unions, If You Tolerate This Piss Your Bitter Will Be Next.
If this comes across as lewd, juvenile and unsubtle on paper, that's because it is exactly the same live. However, Mark and Lard's easygoing Mancunian charm helps them carry it off. As frustrated musicians themselves - Riley, amazingly, survived a stint in the Fall - you can tell they are genuinely passionate about the form. And if the singing is hardly note-perfect, then a spirited delivery helps the pair bluff their way through.
Of course, there's a highly laddish flavour to tonight's show. Mark and Lard play in front of a reconstructed pub, cheer when told that Manchester City have just scored, and cast aspersions on each other's heterosexuality. Sometimes the banter can grate, but it is never anything other than good-humoured.
The Shirehorses don't leave you wanting more: each parody is as disposable as your average radio sketch. However, it's no less enjoyable for that. If nothing else, Mark and Lard's take on indie rock lends some laughs to a genre notorious for taking itself overseriously.
• At the Astoria, London WC2 (020-7434 9592), on Thursday, then tours.
