大象传媒

Portishead, The London Boys, Texas - all great bands and all named after real-life places.

Well now you can add 'Derby' to that list. Yes our city shares its name with a new band who are steadily building a decent following across the Atlantic.

Playing live

'Derby' the band hail from Portland in Oregon and have enjoyed critical acclaim for their recently-released second album 'Posters Fade'.

The self-confessed Anglophiles count The Jam, The Kinks and mid-nineties Britpop as key influences and you can certainly hear those bands in Derby's melodic, hook-driven tracks.

They've also played gigs in Hollywood and have set their sights on touring the world.

But if you're wondering how the group ended up choosing 'Derby' as a name, the band say it came from a love of football rather than an unhealthy obsession with St Peter's Street.

Manchester United: The real inspiration

Lead singer Dave Gulick said: "I happen to be a huge football fan and I loved watching and playing it when I was growing up.听

"The actual 'Derby' name came from watching a Man United v Man City match on Fox Sport World - pretty much the only soccer based cable channel in the States.

"The commentator mentioned the importance of this 'Manchester derby'. The name just seemed to work and we went with it.

Debut album 'Posters Fade'

"We've never been to Derby but would absolutely love to come to visit. We just started a European press campaign which for us is really exciting.听 Hopefully if things fall into place we'll be able to tour and release the record overseas."

So they may not have named their band after our city but now they're representing us in the world of music, what are their chances of making it big?

A search of the mp3 blog aggregator 'Hype Machine' shows their tracks are being listened to by music fans across the world but the band have received little press in the UK so far.

So there is still work to be done but given the positive reaction to their newest release and the speed in which acts can break these days, you wouldn't bet against them.