WHAT do you do when you're an up-and-coming rock band looking for inspiration for that difficult third album? You go and camp out in a disused 75ft-high water tower, of course.

The one British Sea Power retreated to while they started working on new material was near Ipswich. It was pretty basic, grins guitarist Noble.

"The only facilities were two three-pin plug sockets. It was not glamorous - a bit like a squat. But it was quite liberating. And the reverberation was incredible!"

Then there were the pigeons - loads of them, clustered in the tower's upper heights.

Okay, so they kept sh**ing on the band as they rehearsed below.

"They even hit the guitar, right after we'd played a chord!" Noble says. But because of the echoes, the sound of the birds' cooing became quite surreal.

"Sometimes it was like they were speaking, you heard the odd word. Yan (the band's vocalist) heard one say I know'," Noble says.

The pigeons may well make an appearance on the band's third album, which is "still coming together" and has yet to be named.

Many of the songs the band has been working on - though sadly not the pigeons themselves - will get an airing at British Sea Power's forthcoming gig at Fibbers, York, on Thursday.

The Brighton-based band - Yan on vocals and guitar, Noble on guitar, Hamilton, bass and vocals, and Wood, drums; percussionist Eamon left the band recently - have booked up a tour of gigs in smaller venues to try out some of their new material.

You can't really do that at larger gigs, says Noble - aka Leeds-born Martin Noble, whose parents still live near Roundhay Park.

Up to half of the Fibbers set will be new songs - which might, Noble says, be difficult for an audience who aren't hard-core British Sea Power fans to sit through.

By going for the smaller venues, members of the band hope to road-test their new material in front of an audience who really get what BSP are all about.

And that is? "High Church amplified rock," Noble says.

No, they're not God-squadders, he explains.

But they do want to "take people out of the moment".

"We like to think that the most important job to do is to take people away from thinking about whether they have got enough change in their pocket to buy a beer," Noble says.

"We want to try to make them slack-jawed."

Judging by some of the rave reviews they have received for their two first albums and early live appearances, they are guaranteed to do just that.

"Pin back yer lugholes, one of the most exciting albums of 2003 has arrived.

"Listening to The Decline Of British Sea Power (the band's debut album) is a scalp-prickling, nape-tickling, ear-blistering experience," gushed the Daily Telegraph on May 31, 2003.

Reviewing their gig at the Reading Festival in 2002, meanwhile, Rollingstone.com wrote: "All of them have this crazy, acid-fried stare, the bass player is wearing tree branches on his head, and one deliriously psycho-delic tune concludes with singer Yan beating on the drum kit with a large stuffed owl. British Sea Power Rule."

Let's hope they do so when they hit Fibbers.

British Sea Power, Fibbers, York, August 31. Tickets £10. Sold out, but it is worth phoning Fibbers on 01904 651250 to see if there are any returns. Doors open 7.30pm.