New bands are aware of the dangerously high chances of following up a successful first album with a resounding flop but in these fast-moving times they can be damaged long before that. It’s only October and White Lies have already been crowned the biggest band of 2009. The same happened to Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong a year ago, and they vanished without even releasing an album.

Hopefully this west London trio are made of sterner stuff. As they aired tracks from their January 2009 album at this small headlining show, it was immediately obvious that these are songs that will sound best in arenas.

With Jack Brown’s rapid, metronomic snares, washes of synth and Harry McVeigh’s resounding guitar chords and portentous, neck-straining vocals, theirs was a big Eighties sound that recalled the widescreen moments of Echo And The Bunnymen and Tears For Fears. Similar-sounding contemporaries include The Killers and Editors, who comfortably fill major venues.

Lyrics were black as their matching shirts. Raindrops, storms and blood all appeared in songs in which bad things invariably happened. Their final number, their epic and tremendously catchy current single, avoided subtlety by being called Death.

It is questionable how much they mean it. Their previous incarnation, the almost successful Fear Of Flying, sounded totally different and for all their glowering, they still seemed jolly nice chaps who might have careers as MPs in 20 years’ time. Will people truly fall in love with White Lies?