YOU’VE conquered Europe, attracting a fanatical overseas following, and had your records played on primetime national radio, winning over tens of thousands of new fans. So what do you do next?

The answer, if you’re The Anydays, is to get back to your roots and earn the admiration of your home town – Oxford.

“We’ve done well in Europe, which has been amazing, so now we are concentrating on breaking through in Oxford,” says drummer Cal Brumhead. “It’s where we live and we really want to be successful here. It means a lot to us.”

With their chiming guitars, crisp vocals and pounding rhythms, The Anydays fuse the cooler sound of the ’60s, with the edge of 1990s Britpop. Glacially cool three-piece Cal, frontman Drew Atkinson and bassman – and former Oxford Mail journalist – Niall Jeger occupy a stylistic spot which cuts a dash somewhere between ’60s Carnaby Street, ’90s Manchester and ’80s Brighton on a sunny Bank Holiday Monday after the Vespas and Lambrettas have rolled in.

It’s loud, fun and punchy, oozing swagger, but it also has a dark edge – with the band’s dapper Wayfarer-clad frontman Drew looking every inch the Mod icon.

And it’s that blend of retro-charm and cutting edge songwriting which has seen them play to packed venues in Italy, France and Spain. And, until recently, they’ve eschewed hype for hard work – which is why they are still something of a novelty in their home city.

That is all set to change though. Their latest single Tambourine has been championed by Radio 2’s Mark Radcliffe – stoking a buzz which saw them kick-start the city’s one-night showcase of new music, the Oxford Punt, last Thursday.

Tomorrow, they continue their assault on the local scene at The Wheatsheaf, in High Street.

“It was great to play The Punt,” says Brumhead, who lives in East Oxford. “So many great bands came through The Punt and it meant a lot to play such a prestigious gig.

“Now we want even more people to come to our gigs, have a good time and see how passionate we are about music.

“We have been compared to The Beatles, Kinks, Jam and The Who – so if you put them together, you won’t be far off. But there’s also a modern passion to our performance.”

Reluctant to play by the rules, the band seem to have bypassed the grungy side of gigging, jumping straight to the slicker, more stylish, side of the business. They recorded their debut single Monday Morning at London’s Toerag Studios, where White Stripes recorded Elephant. The Hackney studio uses only 1960s recording equipment and still has the EMI desk from Abbey Road, used by The Beatles for Revolver.

From there they hit the Med – living a rockstar lifestyle everywhere from Madrid to Perugia, where the 700-strong crowd fed them vodka and Coke through straws as they played.

They have also picked up support slots for Alphabeat and Vincent Vincent, twice played the legendary Cavern Club in Liverpool, and shot a video for their song I Feel Free in Oxford Prison (check it out at myspace.com/theanydays).

But it is latest single Tambourine, released next week, which has been pricking up ears. “Having it picked up by Mark Radcliffe was really helpful,” says Cal.

“It wasn’t on some obscure unsigned show at 3am, it was sandwiched between Bob Marley and the 9pm news. Since then, many other people have picked up on it – including a radio station in New York, so we could be looking at a tour in the Big Apple before long.”

So what is their secret? “We are good at what we do,” says Cal. “We enjoy it – and it shows.

“The music industry is more competitive than ever, with records being given away for free, and we know it’s important to put on a good show. Music is the most important thing to us, and when people come and see us they WILL be entertained!”