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“It’s always good to have some sort of reputation in this business,” he confides. “The nice boys in music, they come last.” Really? Coldplay are not doing too badly. “True, but I bet they have their dark days.” How about Travis? “OK, OK I’m completely wrong. I guess I’ll just have to mend my ways.”The quest for a hit is still something that drives Haines, having been unforthcoming in his previous projects In 2000 he finally achieved his goal The song “The Facts Of Life” went to No 20 in the charts “It was done scientifically,” he beams “It was a blatant attempt to make a hit and it worked We even got to play on Top of the Pops. What people fail to understand is that making records is really very easy But then everything that we write sounds like a hit to us. Whether it gets played on the radio or is liked by critics is not really within our control. I’m a bit too long in the tooth to worry about things like that.”Moore says he gave up chasing the pop dream years ago.

After his three-year tenure with The Jesus and Mary Chain in the mid-Eighties, he moved to New York and struck out on his own “I had my real stab at stardom then,” he recalls “I guess I got it out of my system. I released two extremely expensive records, which few people bought I realised in the end that I was fairly ridiculous. I had huge hair and a huge ego, both of which needed squashing. I think you need to have all your ambitions dashed before you can approach a career in music with any seriousness.”I wonder how the band would cope with the attention if they had a real Robbie Williams-sized hit “Oh, I think we’d rise to the occasion,” laughs Moore.

“In my mind there still is that element of greed: the first-class travel, big hotel rooms, great clothes and restaurants. But as long as you have enough money to do the next record the way you want it, I guess that’s fine. I think success is just being able to continue.”The three met during a studio recording of a band called Balloon. Nixey was singing backing vocals, while Moore and Haines had been drafted in to play on a couple of songs Moore remembers feeling an “instant chemistry” with Haines “We both laughed at terrible things,” he recalls cheerfully It was Moore’s idea to start the band. He had even decided on the name, having recently been on a flight where he was convinced the plane was suffering mechanical failure.Nixey, to whom Moore is now married, got involved a few weeks later when she received a mysterious fax.

“It said, ‘Come and sing a song for us, we’ll make you famous,’” she recalls “Later John rang me and sang the song down the phone. First I thought, ‘They’ve got a nerve,’ but then I got a bit curious. How could I possibly resist?”Nixey says she’s happy not to get involved with the songwriting. Yet one of the most striking things about Black Box Recorder’s lyrics is their acute female perspective.