WHEN Jon Windle had his jaw shattered, caught in a scrap between two gangs on the south coast, he must have wondered whether someone really had put a curse on his band.

Lying in a hospital bed mulling over the prospect he might not be able to sing again, the amiable frontman contemplated a possible future without Little Man Tate.

"They have to tell you the worst case scenario," recalls Jon now, sipping coffee opposite Sheffield's Peace Gardens. "So I just lay on the bed thinking 'What if I cannot feel my tongue any more? What if that's it? What am I gonna do?'"

Jon got whacked leaving a Brighton club the night the band celebrated inking a deal with Skint Records.

Chatting to some local lads at the time, he believes he may have stumbled into a gang dispute. "I got smacked in the face by three lads and ended up with a double fracture and two metal plates in my jaw. They also broke my nose but I was lucky it wasn't worse."

Regardless, LMT had to pull imminent festival appearances, but Jon recovered soon enough to do V.

"The people at the Hallamshire were immense. And, while it's not a good thing I got smacked in the mouth, it has put things into perspective.

"I was thinking everything was against us, but now we are positive and excited."

Jon did worry the injury might leave him with a serious speech impediment – he remains one of the few British singers unable to say his Rs fully but seems to tackle it head on in lyrics to some of the new songs, not a deliberate ploy to accentuate this subtle and (without being patronising) endearing trait.

"That's how we have been sold to Jonathan Ross by our radio plugger," quips Jon, who says fans have had a laugh at his expense. "When we were asking people to send in album titles the best one was Round The Rugged Rocks The Ragged Rascal Ran. They said 'Let's see Jon promote that one'.

"I have tried so hard in the past to change it – I even had visions of waking up after my jaw operation completely fixed. My mates take the mick, but it doesn't bother me."

The jaw break has added to an interesting journey between debut album About What You Know and contrasting new one Nothing Worth Having Comes Easy, out on September 15 – an apt title that actually came via a suggestion from a fan who spotted some graffiti.

Dropped by V2 as UK music execs tightened belts and swapped chairs, LMT and manager Barney Vernon gambled on making another record, albeit with the support of a loyal fanbase.

"It all went pear-shaped around Christmas," recalls guitarist Maz. "But from last summer we didn't really know what was happening.

"It was a case of 'Do we believe in our songs enough to record an album without a record label behind us?'

"But we had faith in ourselves and although it has not been released yet it feels like a success.

"On the first album there were a few niggles we were not happy about, but it was a bit out of our hands. This time it wasn't."

Songs were penned in batches each time the lads had a self-imposed deadline, including premature booking of the studio.

This seemingly odd logic paid off; turning up with 10 songs and needing 15. One of the least typical LMT moments – closer Shoulder To Sigh On – was written in Sheffield's 2Fly studio with local producer Alan Smyth even supplying "medieval kazoo".

"We said all along we wanted to record here. Alan gets stuff out of us no-one else can. For the first album we had to record the vocals for House Party At Boothy's 30 times and even then I had to go down to London to redo them. And we still never got what Alan managed."

In turn, LMT have also delivered a record branded by diversity and maturity, confirming the passage of time between albums.

Among other things, they wanted to prove a point, says Maz.

"We were always seen as a happy-go-lucky band. That's great but we were like 'Let's see if we can think outside the box a bit'.

"It's not like we have written some concept album – just raised the bar a bit."

For Jon it seems to go further. "I think we were misunderstood last time," he says. "Some reviewers just completely got it wrong; you cannot go listening to Radiohead and then review us. A lot got the wrong end of the stick.

"People cannot compare us to the Arctic Monkeys – look how many records they have sold – we will always fall short. Put us alongside Pigeon Detectives; if we had had that kind of airplay we would be huge.

"The only thing that has let us down is the knock-on effect of the whole Sheffield thing. But this is the perfect time for us. As long as people take us at face value they are going to love it... if people give us a chance to be Little Man Tate."

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