Thanks to the Victoria Line (or lack thereof), I was running late for my inaugural Guided Missile night at the Buffalo Bar, at the very upper end of Upper Street. The main attraction for me tonight was the Outside Royalty, who I’d seen a number of times over the last year or so, but I’d also heard good things about Official Secrets Act, who were headlining.

I’d missed the opening act but, after squeezing up to the bijou bar, settled down with the help of a bottle or few of the Czech Republic’s finest to enjoy the rest of the night. Almost immediately, the stage was taken (in more than one sense) by the rather improbably named Ape Drape Escape. Hailing from Sheffield, they were a heady blend of glam and electro punk, and like many of their predecessors from the Steel City, from the Human League to Pulp to Arctic Monkeys, they drew from the same wellspring of wit and attitude (and in Phil Oakey’s case, hair styling tips and eyeliner). Their frontman, Martin Clark, when not engaging in witty banter, was busy thrashing about the stage and often disappearing into a sometimes bewildered audience (once on all fours!), like some weird hybrid of Iggy Pop, Ian Curtis, Jarvis Cocker and, er, Peter Kay.

The Outside Royalty’s star is very much in the ascendency. Having taken part in the Road To V competition and toured with Young Knives during the last year, whilst garnering lots of favourable reviews along the way, this Pittsburgh-born but London-based band have an imminent single release on Bloody Awful Poetry Records and were tonight having a video filmed for said single, Falling. As it was, we ended up with Falling being performed twice, for the benefit of the cameramen (not that we were complaining). The Outside Royalty have been compared to Arcade Fire, but in a positive sense, due to their driving acoustic guitar mixed with cello, violin and synth accompaniment, and they never fail to be uplifting, especially with a rousing and unexpectedly energetic cover of, of all things, Eleanor Rigby.

Similarly, headliners Official Secrets Act appear to have a bright future in store, with words of encouragement of from the likes of Steve Lamacq and Marc Riley behind them. They played a fast and furious set of angular guitars, lyrical waxing, pulsing synths (with what looked suspiciously like a harmonium thrown into the mix) to get the crowd going. They even snuck in a cover of The Ronettes’ Be My Baby which, in the immortal words of the Fast Show, was nice. A good line-up overall from this well-established club night.