Wondering about White Mischief’s headline band British Sea Power? Read on for elucidation – both literary, aural and visual.

Do You Like Rock Music? is the third album from British Sea Power. It was made in the Czech Republic, Canada and Fort Tregantle – a 19th Century fortification up on the Cornish cliffs. It was recorded by a band unafraid to embrace the far poles in arts and entertainment. BSP have toured with and been commended by David Bowie, The Flaming Lips, Lou Reed, Radiohead and Jarvis Cocker. But they’ve also been invited to play in celebration of the life and times of Sir John Betjeman, the late UK Poet Laureate, born in 1906. At the launch party for their debut album, BSP played alongside The Copper Family, a clan of Sussex folk singers who’ve been going for 200 years.

Do You Like Rock Music? is the album on which British Sea Power’s long game comes to a compelling conclusion. Good is arrayed against evil; rock music against non-rock music. Subject matter includes floods on Canvey Island, economic migration, Slavia Prague FC, heartache and the Apocalypse – plus the Great Skua and the wrestler born Shirley Crabtree and known as Big Daddy. The Great Skua is a big piratical sea bird. Here it provides the title for a gorgeous sweep of instrumental music – one strand in an album that moves from the six-minute rock fantasia of Lights Out For Darker Skies to the beauteous alt-rock pastoral-soul of No Need To Cry. More than ever, writing and singing is equally divided between brothers Yan and Hamilton.

The song Waving Flags – a stirring choral-rock tribute to Polish plumbers and groundbreaking nudist Hedy Lamarr – is perhaps the band’s most cogent, powerful moment yet. This is rock music as it should be, both ridiculous and profound – providing for the aching needs of both the higher and lower self.

British Sea Power formed in 2000. From frozen Cumbria came brothers Yan Scott Wilkinson and Neil Hamilton Wilkinson – plus school friend Matthew Wood. Guitarist Martin Noble arrived all the way from West Yorkshire. BSP released their first record in 2001 – the Fear Of Drowning single on their own Golden Chariot label. But it was the band’s live performances that defined their first years.

There were riotous shows in remarkable surroundings. BSP world go on to play by the sea on the Scilly Isles, underground in a Cornish slate mine and at the Chelsea Flower Show. At the John Betjeman Centenary Gala, they performed alongside Ronnie Corbett, Nick Cave and The Prince Of Wales. When BSP played the 2002 Reading Festival, Rolling Stone seemed to say the rest of the weekend’s entire bill paled before them: “Fuck this puerile drivel, we’re going to see British Sea Power… British Sea Power rule!”

Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis came to see BSP and signed them on the spot. The band’s debut album, The Decline Of British Sea Power, was released in 2003. Confidently contradicting its title, the album was an audacious jamwagon that swung abruptly from 30-second choral swoons to the 14-minute Lately. The latter took in life, death, George Formby and the Scandinavian sea lanes of the Kattegat. In between lay the post-punk pocket-battleships Carrion and Remember Me.

“Stadium-sized melodies and exquisite songwriting,” said MOJO of BSP’s debut. The NME was in accord: “Out of this world… a dazzling debut.” The Sunday Times simply stated that BSP were, “The best band in Britain.”

There were concerts from St Petersburg to San Francisco – including tours with the Flaming Lips, Interpol, Pulp and The Killers. In 2004, Time Out made BSP Live Band Of The Year at their annual awards. In 2005, BSP released their second album, Open Season. It was a more streamlined, graceful record, but again the press located strength in depth.

“A marvellous album,” reported The Guardian. “A triumphant lesson in sweeping toward the mainstream with your imagination and mystery intact.” Rolling Stone recorded that: “The first few songs are so jaw-slackeningly great it can take days to get to the album’s highlight, the epic eight-minute medley of Please Stand Up and North Hanging Rock.” The NME said, “Wonderful… breathes with originality, poise and grace.”

In the wake of Open Season, BSP made a single with Somerset hit-makers The Wurzels and played on stage with German avant garde enigmas Faust. No one else did this. The latter engagement concluded with an energetic fist fight.

Now British Sea Power unveil their finest hour. Do You Like Rock Music? was recorded around the world – with Graham Sutton (Jarvis Cocker, Bark Psychosis), Efrim Menuck (Godspeed You! Black Emperor) and Howard Bilerman (Hotel2Tango studio). It’s also an album that looks the world squarely in the eye. “It’s our version of Doctor Jekyll And Mr Hyde,” says guitarist Martin Noble. “It’s about cherry wood and Kevlar – about the good and the bad. There are reasons for anxiety at the moment – but if we’re in danger let’s address the danger with optimism, loud distorted chords and the knowledge that we’re at least trying. That’s rock music, isn’t it?”

White Mischief is the last stop on British Sea Power’s US and UK tour, which includes a fort on the river Mersey, a Leicester pub and a Polish ex-servicemen’s club in Bristol.