INSPIRAL Carpets are back with their first studio album in twenty years as one of the stars of the Manchester music boom prepare to bring the curtain down on one of Lancashire’s most popular live music venues on Sunday.

The Carpets will say goodbye to Preston 53 Degrees, which is closing its doors this month after nearly a decade of hosting headline shows from some of the biggest acts in the business, including Johnny Marr, Orbital, Miles Kane and Ellie Goulding.

Inspirals singer Stephen Holt said: “It is a great shame that the venue is going, but we are determined to make it a really great night.

“Our music, I think, is a happy, uplifting sound and We are honoured that they’ve asked us to be the last band to play there. It will be one big last hurrah.”

Holt was the original singer of the band, forming the Carpets in 1983 with guitarist Graham Lambert, and has been given the recall after the band’s two-decade mainstay Tom Hingley quit a couple of years ago.

“Rejoining Inspiral Carpets came out of the blue – I just got a text from Graham Lambert,” recalled Holt.

“It was mad – totally unexpected.

“I hadn’t seen the band play for years, apart from bumping into Clint Boon on the odd occasion.

“When Graham said would I like to do some singing, I thought it was a bit of a side project.

“I didn’t think it was Inspiral Carpets – so it was a huge surprise.”

He added: “I suppose I had regretted leaving the band for years.

“I left because of a few things, personal aspects going on in my life and maybe because of the direction the band was moving.

“But to get this second chance is brilliant and it is more exciting now than the early days.”

The songs on the new album fizz and pop with nervous energy, like their classic tunes This is How It Feels, Two Worlds Collide, and She Comes In The Fall with the Inspirals back at their garage band best.

There is even a cameo by punk poet John Cooper Clarke Let You Down.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air creating new songs with Stephen – his input has given us a fresh impetus,” said Lambert.

“There was no sane logic why we didn’t do it a decade ago.

“Getting home from rehearsals and playing back a new song is such a thrill again.

“A new album seemed impossible a couple of years ago: now it’s a reality.”

n Inspiral Carpets, Preston 53 Degrees, December 21. £18. Support from Manchester garage rockers Brown Brogues and psychedelic revivalists Blossoms.