Having ended 2009 with their second album Wall of Arms featuring heavily in every music scribe’s best of the year, indie rock quintet The Maccabees are set to rock the Regal on Wednesday.

Made up of singer Orlando Weeks, guitarists and brothers Hugo and Felix White, bassist Rupert Jarvis and touring drummer Sam Doyle, The Maccabees are originally from South London, but formed in Brighton in 2004. The seaside town has had a run of new successful acts, with Jack Peñate, Florence and the Machine, British Sea Power and Blood Red Shoes all having emerged from the town’s indie venues and gone on to successful careers.

They released their debut single in 2005, and slowly developed both a loyal following and record label interest, which culminated in them inking a deal with Fiction and putting out their debut album Colour It In. Packed with choruses that could be shouted by large crowds and also thought about afterwards, the album was a triumph.

Powered by the same frenetic rhythm sections and cheesewire guitars of their contemporaries, The Maccabees were set apart by Orlando Weeks’s vocals. Softer and more tender than listeners were used to, the band were quickly taken to heart and after an extensive tour returned to the studio in 2008, to release their much acclaimed second album, which, against all expectations, managed to surpass its predecessor.

This gig will serve as a warm-up for the band’s stint as headliner of this year’s NME Awards Tour, where they will be joined by the Big Pink, Bombay Bicycle Club and the Drums. Traditionally, the NME Awards Tour has been a marker of bands destined for superstardom, with Coldplay, The Killers, Bloc Party, Kaiser Chiefs being among those to have taken part in the past. Hopefully, this will allow the band to begin their assault on the summer festivals with a spring in their step and an enlarged fanbase.

Tickets are £15 for both standing and unreserved seating. They can be bought from www.seetickets.com, www.ticketmaster.com, www.wegottickets.com and the Regal box office.