The recent decisions by two of the very finest bands on the local scene to call it quits left no small amount of fans bitterly disappointed.

Yet from every end comes a new beginning – often bigger and better then before.

The Fullertons and Langley Road are dead. Long live the Swing Youth.

Completed by brothers Louis and Jimmy (formerly of Langley Road) and Dave and Chris (the Fullertons) new outfit Swing Youth has been recording, gigging and writing for a few months now; the fusion of the two such talented acts proving very popular indeed with fans old and new.

And the sound? Judging form my first experience of them at the Horns a couple of weeks back: fantastic. It’s a very fine mix of the erratic but uplifting Hammond-driven, 60s inspired madness of the Fullertons in perfect harmony with the edgier post-punk splendour of Langley Road – an ever-so-slightly mellowed, cleaner, crisper, frankly more appreciable offering than ever before. Hearing the joyful new offering World in Flames genuinely had the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end when I first heard it at the Horns a week or two back. But don’t just take my word for it… “We’re getting some amazing reactions after gigs,” explains Dave, “the type of reaction we never got before. We had a lot of success with the Fullertons but this seems a bit different, there’s so many people saying good things about us and we’ve picked up a hard core-of about 15 new fans who are following us to very gig. It’s great to see.”

“It’s early stages but everyone is really excited about this project,” explained a clearly inspired Louis – almost without doubt the most entertaining drummer in Hertfordshire.

“We’ve been good mates for years so this seemed like the right thing to try when the Fullertons broke up in January. We came together, played around, recorded a few tracks and put them on Myspace.

“All of a sudden we had gig offers coming in. People liked what we were doing.”

But why turn your back on two such respected acts?

“We weren’t having fun anymore,” adds Louis. “It’s no secret we had our differences in the band and the fun was gone. If you’re not enjoying something then why carry on?”

And the Fullertons? “We’d taken it as far as we could. We had a lot of interest but, just as it looked liked we might get signed something happened. Looking back we were probably a year or two late with our sound. We were good but not right for the time. It made sense to try something new with people we respect so much. So far it’s been great.”

At this point it is probably fair to ask three questions about Swing Youth: a) are they better than the Fullertons, b) are they better than Langley Road, and c) what’s with the name?

To questions a and b: yes, I genuinely believe they are. The name, believe it or not, stems form an alternative youth group in Nazi Germany – a group which lived (and often died) to be different.

“One of the things we learned from the Fullertons,” concludes Dave, “Is that to get signed you really have to be different – to stand out from the crowd. We really hopeful that this project will allow us to do that.”