Dan Stephens, AKA Dan le Sac of quirky dance outfit Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip, probably shouldn't be playing in front of students.

He grimaces: "I shouldn't start on students because, when I was one, I hated them. And now I'm not, I hate them even more."

Odd then that he is just setting out on an entire UK university tour, including a show tonight at Preston's 53 Degrees. Is he intending to educate them?

He says: "You don't get education from students. Working men's clubs is where you find the education. Students aren't educated.

"You've got students who are there to work and it is about furthering their education and obviously their career. And then you've got the dudes whose mum and dads have bought them a house and they are there just to try and get into girls' knickers and think that drinking lots of alcohol is somehow inherently cool."

Lucky then that 53 Degrees is also open to the general public. But he admits: "It should be quite cool because the good thing about student unions is that they are places in which everyone congregates so hopefully there will a certain amount of people who are new to us as well as people who have heard us."

Dan Stephens, AKA Dan le Sac, met David Meads, better known as Scroobius Pip, at a party in their home town of Southend on Sea.

Working together began to take over from their separate solo work and the success of Thou Shalt Always Kill was followed earlier this year by the release of their acclaimed album, Angles.

Their Lancaster Library show is something different. To mark the close of the National Year of Reading, they will host a question and answer session on the poetic inspiration behind their lyrics.

Their 53 gig is more of a typical show. As we speak, he's yawning with jetlag after returning from America yesterday. He says blearily: "Yeah, you just kinda forget what home looks like sometimes.

"Its the fourth time we've been out as a band and it's pretty cool. It was a good little tour. It was kinda weird too. Some of the places like LA and that where we've been there before, we get a really good followings but some of the towns like Ames, Iowa….

"Album came out there September 2 so we just came over to do wha
t we can for it. America's not really a priority for us because obviously we're English so we just do what we can for America really. We can't spend our whole lives over there. I think just letting America happen the way it's going to happen."

And no matter how much he hates students, they can't be worse than one audience they encountered in America. He recalls: "It was a place called Grand Rapids in Michigan.

"There was a Christian rock night on in the main room and we were in the small room and we were meant to start when the Christian rock finished.

"It was hideous because I think we were playing A Letter From God To Man at the point when all the Christians came through. And they were all like, hmmm, this sounds..OFFENSIVE."

And he has a reason to look forward to Preston – thanks to his girlfriend, Roberta. He says: "The good thing about that one is I'll know a few people at that one because my partner is from Leyland and so she'll have some of her friends there.

"Unlike most girlfriends I've had in my life, I actually like her friends! If it had been the other way round, it would be awful. Id be like, I wanna hide."

* Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip play 53 Degrees tonight, Friday, October 10, and Lancaster Library on Saturday, December 6.

* For a full interview about their plans for the library show, see WOW on December 5.

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