Imagine if The Libertines were formed not by Carl and Pete, but by a young Chuck Berry and Elvis, both high on the intoxicating potential of this new fangled racket, before subsequent generations mucked around with their blueprint. In all probability it would be better than just about everything, but at least young Londoners Vincent Vincent and the Villains have a decent stab at approximating such a fictional sound. Here Vincent tells more.

So you're not rockabilly, then?
No, because I feel rockabilly is a tired medium which imposes strict rules on the bands which play it. We're more iconoclastic than that, we're not just chugging out the same clichés. I'm just interested in taking the raw energy of rock'n'roll and putting it into a modern context, writing fun songs and exciting lyrics, and making people want to dance to it.

Where does the name come from? Your parents didn't call you that, now did they?
Originally I started a band called The Vincents, because a lot of my heroes had that name - Gene Vincent, for example - and I liked the rock'n'roll image of Vincent motorbikes. Then I looked on the web and found there were dodgy covers bands with the same name all over the word, so I changed it to something punchier. Mark Radcliffe played our single on his show the other day and John Cooper Clarke, who was his guest, said how much he liked the name.

Vincent Vincent and the Villains play Nice'n'Sleazy, Glasgow, Fri 6 Oct.