IF you’ve been anywhere near a festival in the last three years, the chances are you’ll have run into Bombay Bicycle Club, the teenage tearaways who first played the V Festival a few days after they finished their GCSEs in 2006.

Looking for something a bit different before they immersed themselves in this year’s festival season they asked fans to suggest unusual gigs for them and out of the hundreds of proposals they have selected just four – including a Hengistbury Head beach hut party, with paella, on Tuesday.

“We just got bored with the round of usual gigs and wanted something to make it a bit more interesting for ourselves and our fans,” says bassist Ed, the youngest of the four 19 year olds who make up the band, named after a chain of London Indian restaurants and home delivery kitchens.

The Bournemouth date is the first of four shows so far booked, the others being in a Puppet Theatre, a replica ruined castle and a mine shaft.

“Why Bournemouth? Well, the guy who suggested it, Simon, said it’s always sunny there, he’s got a beach hut and offered to make paella. We really really wanted to play on a beach because we probably won’t get a chance to do that again and so we had to take up the offer.

“We’ll do an acoustic set and then hang around, maybe go for a swim, it’ll be completely awesome.”

The band’s new single, Dust On the Ground, is out on Monday and their eagerly-awaited debut album, I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose, follows a week later, marking the first step in a career that Ed already sees as long term.

“We’ve all been playing music for years so that feels very familiar, but being in a band that is getting some success with a record about to come out feels very unfamiliar. We were 15 when we got in this band together and although we all have lives outside the band we’ll carry it on as long as it feels fresh and fun to do so.

“When I first started playing at about 13 I used to dream about selling out Wembley, getting groupies and all that, but pretty soon that fades and you realise it’s more about making music which is what we love to do. We made this album long before a record label was involved so there was no interference. They heard it and liked it and wanted to release it which is useful because they know much more about this game than we do, we’re still learning.”

The band assimilate a host of influences from the last 40 years of music. Guitarist Jamie’s aunt was the late Kirsty MacColl and his grandfather was British folk music icon Ewan MacColl. His dad Neill advised him to be a plumber if he wanted a decent living – until he heard Jamie’s stockpile of songs and promptly offered to produce Bombay Bicycle Club’s first demos.

“I grew up listening to old music my dad played – a lot of Beatles and Velvet Underground,” says Ed. “I guess as a band we listen to everything except contemporary indie music, which is odd considering that we make contemporary indie music!

“We like a lot of 90s indie music like Pavement and Dinosaur Jr; and I’m a big fan of 80s bands like Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen which all comes out in the music we play. We get asked what our music’s like all the time and I only ever come up with useless descriptions, but here goes – it’s Sonic Youth with Devendra Banhart vocals. See, I told you it was a rubbish answer.”

Thanks Ed.