Bang up to date: Glasgow's 1990s move from playing parties to grown-up venues

The 1990s are quite possibly the smiliest and most optimistic band around. Just the kind of people you would want to invite to your party. As we meet in their home town of Glasgow, the trio are planning a gig they are putting on with Franz Ferdinand – at someone's flat. It's a welcome break from the shows they have become accustomed to, and more in keeping with the band's original intent: to play parties.

"We always said we're a party band. We just want to play at parties," their singer Jackie McKeown says. "That was the idea, but we got signed so quickly so it was like 'oh, right, now we've got to play at normal venues and be a normal band.'"

The band's drummer, Michael McGaughrin, says: "When was the last time we went to a party in Glasgow?"

McKeown offers: "It's quite lucky we've had all these years of partying and stuff. I know generally we're playing music and that's great, but we're travelling about all the time. I just dream about getting back to Glasgow and partying all the time." In their 30s, 1990s are the kids who never grew up.

After a mere handful of gigs, the three friends suddenly found themselves signed to Rough Trade Records, home to The Strokes and The Long Blondes. For a band who never took themselves too seriously, the five-star reviews they received for their May debut album Cookies, a collection of catchy power-pop and rock'*'roll songs best reflected by the snappy description "something you give to kids to make them happy", came as a total surprise. Radiating excitement, McKeown says: "I was quite amazed when all the reviews came in for the record. It was treated seriously!"

The modesty is endearing, but perhaps unexpected considering the praise they have been receiving from the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, The Long Blondes and The Gossip. McKeown tells how Beth Ditto spotted him at All Tomorrow's Parties Festival. "She nearly had a total fit. [She said] 'It's actually him!' Then she grabbed me and said, 'You changed my life!'" But I'd never heard of The Gossip before."

Now, 1990s have become fans of The Gossip, whom they consider to be the best live band around. "I would never go on stage after them even if we were much bigger than them at some point. But everybody else I don't care who we play with – bring it on, Kasabian."

Aside from celebrity plaudits, all three 1990s members are stalwarts of the Glasgow band scene. In the Nineties, McKeown and McMorrow played in indie band The Yummy Fur with Franz Ferdinand's singer Alex Kapranos and drummer Paul Thomson, while McGaughrin played with V-Twin. Their establishment on the Glasgow scene is palpable – as we sit in Mono, the second-hand record shop and hip hang-out for local musicians, every few minutes they wave at a fellow musician they recognise strolling through the place McKeown calls "indie central".

According to McKeown, being in 1990s is infinitely more fun than The Yummy Fur, because they were close friends before they started out, while the former was a disjointed collection of friends and floating members. "The Yummy Fur wasn't really fun. It was like a disorganised mess packed full of misery and unfulfilled ambitions. We were really unknown – we didn't have a proper record label or anything."

Most of the songs on Cookies were sparked by things people said at parties. Take "Is There a Switch for That", something a party-goer said about a girl McKeown was with. Was she that annoying? "Aye." In unison they burst into peals of laughter. So why was he with her? "I was married to her," McKeown admits. "I'm not married to her any more. We had a funny relationship. Not funny ha ha, though."

They are genuinely delighted by every compliment. One man even told McKeown that one of his children, barely old enough to string a sentence together, sings "See You at The Lights". McKeown says: "That's one of the nicest things anybody's ever told me. These little kids have no prejudice. They're not, 'oh, you and Franz Ferdinand'."

If they have an intention with their music, it would be to make people happy. "But it seems to do that anyway so we've achieved our intention," McKeown says.

"I don't think any of us are really going rock star crazy. I don't think you can be a rock star in Glasgow – nobody lets you. When you're in Glasgow you'd just get the piss ripped right out of you if you started acting slightly rock starry. There are too many bands about and everybody's conscious of not appearing like a complete arsehole." It's a trait McGaughrin glimpsed in friend Kapranos when the pair were standing on the street and Kapranos assumed that a limo full of girls on a birthday party were waving at him. "Alex was, like, 'hi'. They completely didn't even see him."

When we finish talking, the first thing they will do, they tell me, is chat to the two girls who are sitting outside the shop – they are the first people to have seen 1990s play and now run the band's MySpace page.

'Cookies' is out now on Rough Trade; 1990s play Meltdown, Southbank Centre, London SE1 (0871 663 2500) tonight

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