Preview: THE METROS Korova (Friday).

Byline: by Jade Wright

GET ready for The Metros - the teenage south London five-piece who count Squeeze, Ian Dury and the Beastie Boys among their biggest influences.

They first came to the attention of 1965's James Endeacott last year, but the music biz supremo, who famously signed The Libertines to Rough Trade back in 2002, had to bide his time because of the minor problem that some of the band were still studying for their exams. Endeacott had been taken with their demos - produced by Ian Dury's son, Baxter.

Guitarist Jak Payne and singer Saul Adamczewski have been mates "since they were born". And their parents had been school friends, before finding jobs in the music business.

Saul's dad designed record sleeves for A&M - the Captain Sensible Xmas single with the free foam beard was a favourite - while Jak's father played session bass for, among others, Squeeze's Glenn Tilbrook. Aged 15, they started writing songs together, recruiting mates Freddi Hyde-Thompson (drums) and Charlie Elliott (bass).

"What we write is a cross between what's actually around us and a fantasy of it," explains Jak.

"Peckham is a dangerous area; you take a little bit from one bloke you meet, a bit from another.

"When we were younger we'd go to the pub with my dad and be surrounded by east London drug dealers, really dodgy people. We'd drink in proper old men's Cockney boozers full of these villains."

"It's easy for people to get confused," adds Saul, "thinking we're wide-boys or lads, but we're relatively middle-class.

"We weren't born on a sink estate or anything. We take a bit of our own experiences and what we see around us and turn it into songs."

There seems to be the germ of a social conscience in their music, too, with the track Robbin Hood name checking Che Guevara and ruing the "degradation of the welfare state".

So are they old-school socialists?

"We might talk about that sort of stuff when we're drunk," counters Saul, "But politics and music... it's a bit dodgy, isn't it?

"All I want is people to put on our records at a party and dance and have a good time."

The Metros play Korova on Friday March 7.