‘HANNAH DOESN’T REALISE HER TALENT OR THE WAY SHE LOOKS. IT’S LIKE SHE’S STILL LEARNING ALL THIS ABOUT HERSELF’

Jamie Cullum way. But he sounds younger than his 23 years. And he still radiates a wide-eyed innocence about the whirlwind the band has experienced since releasing their first EP, Metal & Dust, a year ago.

‘I don’t drink on tour,’ Reid says. Mostly, the gluten-intolerant singer takes care of her voice as gluten can trigger hearing problems, inflammation and fatigue. She can conjure that melancholy as easily as dance euphoria (Reid guests on Disclosure’s ‘Help Me Lose My Mind’) or can reinvent a pop song with aplomb (check YouTube for London Grammar’s version of Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball’).

As soon as things calm down, Rothman hopes to get a flat in London with his girlfriend, but for now still lives at the family home when he’s in the capital — as does Reid, who is in a relationship with her universityera boyfriend. Major, who’s single, shares a Camden flat with his elder brother Bruno, also a musician, signed to Virgin as a solo artist.

Courtesy of her Scottish architect father, Reid spent childhood summers at the Edinburgh Festival and was keener on board-treading as a teenager. ‘I got a drama scholarship at my school and was going to try to become an actress. Then my stagefright became so bad…’ ‘…that you became a singer instead?’ says Rothman quizzically. ‘Well, yeah,’ she grins. ‘But I was an awful actress. And then I went to university and Dan forced me to get over it.’

All three stuck with their studies until the end, even as they were trundling up and down the M1 to play shows. Did their tutors tolerate this extracurricular activity?

‘Actually, the English department wasn’t very happy or supportive,’ says Reid. ‘Even the fact that I was writing lyrics didn’t help. I got such a bad vibe from the department that I had to be discreet about what I was doing. But it wasn’t as bad for me as it was for Dot.’ Major was in the year below Reid and Rothman. ‘For us it was exam time when it became really busy with the band,’ Reid continues, so she was off the departmental radar. ‘But I still managed to cram it in. I don’t think it affected me that much,’ she says of attention from record labels. Quiet and reflective, she’s a million miles from a fame-hungry, showboating,

‘ Don’t call me Harry