Quite simply, it’s a mini-festival cramming in loads of bands dotted about various parts of Camden in one night alone. A genius idea, which was only revived last year after a lengthy eight-year hiatus. In the process it’s helped revive the British pop-rock and indie scene, and this year is by no means an exception.

The venues plucked for the Crawl span between the Barfly on Chalk Farm Road to the Purple Turtle on Crowndale Road with more than 40 live acts billed to perform on this thankfully dry April evening.

Helping to launch more new and up-coming bands, last year’s festival brought our attention to the excellent Maximo Park and the Mystery Jets, though after 2005's fiasco, we realised the true meaning of the Camden Crawl - you really do need to crawl rather than sprint around the pubs and clubs, and not attempt to squeeze in as many gigs as possible in one go. So a valuable lesson was learned from last year – you can't see all the bands. And if you think you can, you'll only waste your time queuing up with all the other disgruntled punters while cursing the ‘one-in one-out’ door policy.

Amongst the acts that we spot is Fields at Lock 17, freshly signed by Black Lab Records. Spectral and very poppy yet melodic in sound (which falls in nicely with our laid-back mood), they are fronted by the very innocent looking (but very naughty really, as my sources tell me) Miss Thorunn Antonia and Nick Peill. With a name like that, it’s not exactly baffling that the band have been influenced by, er, fields. "I like the idea of having the folky pastoral elements, like the name" says Nick, "But on the other hand it can be quite ambiguous, like fields of white noise, or static. That's what I was trying to allude to."

We decide to hang on for The Maccabees, a bunch of young lads from Brighton. Their lead singer is called Orlando, and to be honest, really thought it was a daft stage name (like Orlando Bloom who is probably called Gary Smith). The five boys clearly pull in a crowd consisting mostly of their mates, who get quite over-excited upon their arrival and promptly dash to the front of the stage.

Rated as the next best thing by some critics, Orlando, unexpectedly for a chap so young, makes for a very charismatic front man with a rich, deep voice. The Maccabees entertain us with their punchy, indie-rock tunes, one of which is dedicated to a swimming pool in Clapham and its wave machine – classic!

We then wander down to the Oh! Bar and attempt to see The Paddingtons which proves to be a total no-go area and so we move on, bypassing the huge queue for the 'secret' gig at the Dublin Castle which is Supergrass in favour of Koko where we patiently wait for The Futureheads. Although looking more and more like old codgers, they still manage to ace a great set that gets our feet dancing.

Hungo even manages to scoop a celebrity photo with Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody and enthusiastically claims him as a new 'mate'. I honestly believe Gary just wanted to get pissed with his mates and wasn’t best pleased about being accosted by us (but we love you Gary, we really do).