INDIE kids Soul Circus are gigging their hearts out in a bid to get noticed.

The unsigned band have already played a flurry of gigs around Leeds and last Friday turned their attention to Huddersfield.

And for guitarist Paul Wainwright the Bar 1:22 slot was something of a homecoming gig.

The 23-year-old recently graduated from Huddersfield University and encouraged his Leeds-based bandmates to gig in the town during his degree.

He said: “We’ve played at the uni a couple of times, headlined there, and we also played at Bar 1:22 and The Warehouse.

“It’s been a while since we last played in Huddersfield, which is a shame.

“I’ve still got friends from uni who are there, and we’ve got fans there who have found us on Facebook and Myspace, so they’ll hopefully be down there.”

The five-piece have also recently appeared at the legendary Batley Frontier.

Paul said the gig had gone really well.

“It was quite surreal to be honest. I think this week Billy Ocean is playing there doing his world tour.

“And it’s a bit weird thinking that Frank Sinatra and all them have played on the same stage that we did.”

Soul Circus’s polished live performances have already caught the attention of several Yorkshire music reviewers and Paul said they had high hopes of stepping up a level this year.

He said: “We’ve been speaking to a couple of people about managing us.

“What we want to achieve this year is to get on some festivals.

“We’re playing the Saltaire Arts Festival in August and recently we’ve been added to the Live at Leeds festival.

“And we’re actually talking to somebody at Live Nation about maybe doing Leeds Festival.

“We really quite fancy Huddstock as well. I went when I was at uni and it was a brilliant weekend. The last I heard was it was up in the air but it wasn’t definitely off. Fingers crossed that they can sort it out because we’d love to do that.”

While Paul admitted Soul Circus would love to emulate their compatriots the Kaiser Chiefs, lyrically he said vocalist Lloyd Bradley was prone to penning a more profound message into their tunes.

“We always try and write songs that people can instantly like.

“It’s brilliant when we can play a gig and see people dancing along to them.

“We’re by no means a dance band although we do make a point of writing songs that people can listen to for the first time or the hundredth time and still enjoy.

“We all write the music together but Lloyd will usually go away and write the lyrics.

“He gets quite into it, he’ll go and spend a bit of time doing it.

“ I think it’s really good that he sings something that means something to him.”

Soul Circus are currently in the studio and hope to release an EP later this spring.

www.soulcircus.co.uk