IT’S hard to describe the sound of one of Worcester’s newest bands, The Night Shift.

There are the guitars with slightly Winehouse-esque vocals over the top, and then there is the rapping which, quite frankly, you don’t expect.

But then you also don’t quite expect it to work, and yet it does.

The Night Shift - aka college students Milly Morris on vocals, rapper Sam Ruane, Emma Harrison on guitar and vocals, drummer Leah Dennison and Brad Jeans on bass - may have only been together for seven or eight months, but they have worked hard to establish themselves on the city’s music scene.

You may have already caught them performing at The Bush Inn, Lanes or The Marr’s Bar, where they’ve enjoyed subverting the crowds expectations.

“It’s great really,” said Dennison. “We all come on and everyone thinks we are a normal band. And then Sam starts rapping and everyone looks up.

"Our originals are heavily influenced by soul and hip hop but we aren't averse to revamping older classics and chart hits.

"With our line-up, the rhythm section carries the arrangement with some dirty rhymes in between. Our influences range from Marvin Gaye and Toots and the Maytals to Jamie T and G Love and Special Sauce.

“We haven’t had any bad feedback, so it all seems to work.”

You may need to be quick to catch them though: The Night Shift have a busy summer of gigging coming up, but after that the future is a little more uncertain.

“Uni has scuppered our plans a bit,” said Dennison. “There are gigs all through the summer holidays, but then we go away all over the country.

“We’ll probably still do gigs in the holidays though.”

- Fine out more about the band - including their upcoming gigs - by visiting myspace.com/the-nightshift.