"I really wanted to punch Johnny Rotten! But I couldn't."

I know, almost anyone could have said that. But Jimmy Smith pretty much had the chance.

The Foals guitarist was at the scene of the now infamous incident which occurred backstage at the Summercase festival in Barcelona, on July 19.

Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke was allegedly the victim of an attack by Sex Pistols singer John 'Rotten' Lydon and his entourage.

"We keep getting asked about racism but we didn't see anything like that," Smith continues. "But I strongly believe Kele. We saw him being attacked, it was kind of shocking. We just went in to help him. He's a friend."

Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis was arrested, and the unusual events of that warm Spanish evening clearly had a profound effect on Smith.
"It probably brought us closer together as a band," he says.

"Johnny Rotten was one of my heroes, I thought the whole a***hole thing was just an image for the press. The guy was wasted – well, so was everyone.

"We didn't do much, in fact we probably made the situation worse!"

Foals – completed by drummer Jack Bevan, keyboardist Edwin Congreave, and bassist Walter Gervers – have been attracting feverish media attention for some time now, although thankfully this has more to do with their fidgety, vibrant dance-pop than brawls with grizzled old punks.

After meeting through mutual involvement in Oxford's "creative music scene", the quintet released debut record Antidotes in March, which peaked at number three in the album chart.

They made a triumphant appearance at Leeds Festival on August 24, and release new single Olympic Airways on October 6. Three days later they will become only the second ever band – after local lads Kaiser Chiefs the night before – to headline the new Leeds Academy.

"Everyone's just going to go to Kaiser Chiefs, they'll all be hungover the next day," Smith laughs.

"We like Leeds, it's great. Academies are nice – they're shiny and smell of plastic."

It's not difficult to detect Smith's ironic tone, and clearly disapproves of the chain-like nature of 'Academy'-branded venues, which have sprung up in almost every major town in the UK over the past few years.

"I think it sucks. It's all about making them bigger, charging more for beer, and they could be anywhere.

"There's nothing that says it's Liverpool, or Newcastle, or Leeds. The venue serves a purpose, but it could be less practical and more fun.

"It provides a platform for when bigger bands come to town, but why do they all have to look the same?"

October 9 will not be Foals' first time in Leeds, of course.

"We played at the Brudenell – now that's a place with character," Smith asserts, happily.

"There's the actual social club next door where all the older people hang out, and a wicked solar system on the wall."

Foals were initially bracketed with last year's 'new rave' phenomenon, alongside acts like Hadouken!, the Klaxons, and heavier pioneers Enter Shikari.

But their fizzing cauldron of sounds possesses more subtlety, with clipped glitch-riffs, brassy jitters, and stark chants which tap gently but persistently at the cranium, like aroused woodpeckers with blunt beaks.

Smith, for one, is forthright in his view that the 'new rave' tag is an inappropriate one.

"That was just lazy journalism, because we play dance music. I'm sure every band wants longevity, not to be part of a short-lived scene."

Elements of the Foals sound evoke a hyperactive, hormonal Radiohead, circa Kid A. Rather apt, given that Smith and Gervers attended and met at the prestigious Abingdon School, Thom Yorke and co's alma mater.

Indeed, although their tenures at Abingdon were nearly two decades apart, both Smith and Yorke were pupils under former headmaster Michael St John Parker, allegedly the subject of Radiohead's stalking, nightmarish lullaby Bishop's Robes.

And suddenly I'm rooting through a pile of old singles, to be greeted by a supposedly "b*****d headmaster" and an establishment stocked full of "children taught to kill, to tear themselves to bits". Yorke's words, not mine, I should add…

So how did Smith feel about treading the same formative grounds as one of the greatest bands of all time?

"I certainly agree that they're one of the greatest bands of all time – but back then everyone was crazy about them, and I wasn't. I was into punk and hardcore.

"They played a (now legendary 2001] gig in South Park in Oxford, and I turned down tickets. That was pretty stupid!"

And his views on the school?

"I think Radiohead hated it, if you listen to Bishop's Robes. But the headmaster Thom's talking about actually helped me, because I was getting a lot of stick for smoking. I'm being very diplomatic!"

Smith's a sharp, friendly, and frank interviewee, and it transpires he's more than used to the ways of journalists. He's just been to see his girlfriend, a music scribe in Cologne, Germany.

"She interviewed me and Yannis in Berlin for Intro, a big German magazine, and then came to see us live. And it went from there."

I'm clearly missing a trick here. When is Karen O next touring?

"Hopefully it won't end up Ian Curtis-like!" he laughs, referring to Belgian journalist Annik Honoré, who became entangled in the love triangle which probably contributed towards Curtis's mental erosion.

Foals alerted themselves to a new audience when appearing on BAFTA-winning E4 show Skins. Commercially this was certainly a great boost for the band, but Smith has clearly agonised over its affects on their credibility.

"I don't think we'll ever do that again," he says. "We gained a lot more fans through it. I don't watch it, maybe it's great, I don't know? The kids seem to love it.

"It was something we did, maybe we regret it, maybe we don't. We definitely worry all the time about this stuff, but you can only worry so much. You have to trust the people who advise you."

There you have it then – an original, principled, yet populist band from Oxford. Foals are Radiohead in a disco.

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