Forget rock and roll, Oxfordshire’s most stylish band are this week promising a night of ‘shock’ and roll. And they want us all to join them in making it a night of monstrous good fun.

Suave surf-rockers The Long Insiders have an unparalleled reputation for their smouldering matinée idol looks and scorching stage shows. But tomorrow they will bring their sassy 1950s-style rockabilly out of the trailer park and into the haunted house, for what they promise will be a howlin’ halloween showdown.

“We are going all out for halloween,” says singer Sarah Dodds. “It’s an extension of our love of theatrics and an excuse to play with fake blood and put on a show. And we’ve been acquiring spooky items for it for weeks.”

With a love of twanging guitars, 1960s West coast reverb and film noir style, The Long Insiders have always cut a dash, looking not just out of place but out of time. There’s is a land of dusty truckstops on desert highways, and chrome-countered Mid West drugstores rather than the creaky-floored upstairs rooms of Oxford’s pubs and clubs.

Part of their appeal is the efforts made by Sarah and bandmates Nick and Simon Kenny, and drummer Dan Goddard, to look the part — even if those parts are of the lead roles in a schlock horror B movie. “I am going for that pale and innocent look,” says Sarah. “I will be looking ravished — but not too ravished. The lads meanwhile are going the other way, turning out in their vampire and werewolf finery.

“But we want everyone to join in, to help make it a great night out.”

Like Dracula himself, the Kenney brothers have had various previous incarnations — though in their case musical ones, enjoying success as members of the bands Thurman and Four Storeys. Dan, meanwhile, is a former member of The Nubiles.

But it is the presence of Aarah, a jazz-lover from Wales with a penchant for killer heels, which makes them one of the county’s most exciting bands.

“We have a great on stage relationship,” she says. “My boys look after me. Nick and I do have a fractious on-stage relationship though. He’ll kick out a verse and I’ll answer it — and there is a certain frisson.

“Together we catch the energy of a different era — and have a sense of fun, darkness and dirtiness that I really like.

“If you have any inclination to good old rock and roll we are the band you’ll want to listen to. But there’s also something there for people who love blues and surf riffs, and those who like to see a proper show. It is great music played by people who don’t just kick around — we put on a spectacle. It’s always a toe-tapping evening and tomorrow we will be going properly all out.”

They will lace their witches’ brew with a smattering of lost classics, retrieved, cobwebs and all, from their extensive record collection.

The band’s look is, Sarah admits, down to her love of clothes-hunting. “I spend a lot of my time trawling through vintage stuff. My look is about tailored elegance and buttoned-up passion. It is all before 1958 – though is dirtied up a bit.”

This weekend it is getting a gothic makeover. “Expect a dead Elvis and a werewolf or two,” she says.

The show also features an appearance by DJ.Rockabilly Rich and Abingdon’s The Arousers.

Sarah says: “There is a bottle of blood (or red wine) for the spookiest costume. And we promise to keep you guys and ‘ghouls’ dancin’ til the witching hour!”

  • The Long Insiders play The Jericho, Oxford, tomorrow (Friday), 8pm
  • Tickets: £6 in advance or £7 on the door wegottickets.com
  • For more on the band’s decidedly spooky goings-on, go to thelonginsiders.co.uk or follow them on twitter @thelonginsiders