PUBLIC Service Broadcasting return to the stage on Sunday at Leeds University Refectory, the first of five dates rearranged from last November.

Nearly a year has passed since the release of their rocket-fuelled second album, The Race For Space, which soared to number 11 in the UK charts in its first week en route to 60,000 sales worldwide.

Frontman J Willgoose Esq and his drummer Wrigglesworth will not veer too far from the format of last year's PSB shows, though Willgoose says: "I think we've had a little more time to dig up a couple more old songs for the set, which keeps things interesting for us and for the audience."

You might be surprised to learn that Willgoose had not listened to the album since last February, until the other day. "I was on a train and had no music with me, except for the master tapes for The Race For Space. I played them for the first time in a year and..."

...What did you think of the record now? "I thought it was pretty weird. That combination of strange sounds and music, having mixed it all and produced it. I just thought it was an odd album, which I thought at the time we made it, but in a good way."

As with the first Public Service Broadcasting album, Inform Educate Entertain, the second combined vintage spoken-word samples with Willgoose's guitar-driven electronica and Wrigglesworth's propulsive drumming, this time focusing on the American and Soviet space programmes from 1957 to 1972.

"When we covered the well-known American missions, Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, we chose not to use the familiar recordings such as the reading of Genesis on Apollo 8 or Neil Armstrong's 'One Small Step' from Apollo 11's moon landing," says Willgoose. "We picked other recordings from those missions."

York Press:

Public Service Broadcasting: "faith in the technological progress of our species"

Instead of focusing on the more obvious heroes of the lunar landings – the astronauts – PSB drew attention to the control-room worker bees, the scientists, engineers and experts, who played such a crucial role too, to express "our faith in the technological progress of our species".

"If there was a statement I wanted to make, it was to challenge the cynicism that it might all have been faked. There's a depressing number of people that believe the moon landing – arguably our greatest technological and spiritual achievement, leaving our own planet and walking on another celestial body –didn't really happen. But if we've reactivated a sense of achievement and wonder through this album, then I find it very satisfying that we've done something tangible."

What inspired Willgoose's fascination with the space race? "I don't know many people who aren't interested in space travel," he says. "It's fascinating and speaks to all mankind, though I no longer want to be an astronaut, which peaked when I was five."

Progress is afoot on the next Public Service Broadcasting record, with Willgoose already working on demos. "The challenge is to stay one step ahead of expectations," he says.