ATHLETE are becoming more athletic for their summer tour.

Throughout July they have been presenting The Hits – Stripped Back, a trim reinvention of their electronic songs in honour of their tenth anniversary: a celebration that brings the south-east Londoners to The Duchess in York tonight.

“We got asked to do an acoustic show at Canary Wharf, in the Winter Gardens, in a massive glass building, as a one-off, all-seated gig for 300 people,” says bass player Carey Willetts. “And as we worked on the songs, we didn’t just come up with ways of doing them acoustically but stripped back as well, and because we had so much fun, we thought, ‘why not do a tour?’.”

That tour began on July 11. “So far it’s gone really well and we’ve really enjoyed doing the songs in different ways,” says Carey.

Piano, synths, programmed sounds and beats, electric guitar, bass and a drum kit all play their part in a tour that is evolving as it progresses, ensuring that every set is always different.

“We’ve also bought this thing called an omnichord, which is an organ, harp and drum machine rolled into one, and it’s kind of like a child’s toy, but it’s probably been the hit and the highlight of the tour so far,” says Carey.

In their ten years together, the Deptford band have released four studio albums, Vehicles And Animals, the chart-topping Tourist, Beyond The Neighbourhood and Black Swan, and last September such Athletic highlights as Wires, You Got The Style, Hurricane, Half Light and El Salvador were gathered on the collection Singles 1-10. Might they release a further album to capture the flavour of the Stripped Back shows?

“We talked about it at the beginning of the tour and now we think we’ve found a way of properly recording some of these shows,” says Carey. “If we do something, we want it to be something a little special that can only be ordered through our website.”

What is certain is the band’s next move. “Our plan is to take a break before doing another album, going off to do our own side projects,” says Carey. “We’ve pretty much done an album every two years so to have a break, for us and everyone, is a good thing to do, but we’re definitely committed to doing another record. No one has put a time scale on it, but when we do it, we all must want to put our heart and soul into it.

“In the meantime, I’ll probably put out my own record as that’s something I’ve wanted to do. I’ll start writing from scratch and whatever comes out will be what it is and will have its own feel.”

In ten years of growing up and growing older – Carey now has two children aged three and one – Athlete have continued to live up to their name: not the loneliness of the long-distance runner, in their case, but the team ethic of sport. “It’s always difficult to choose a band name but someone said, ‘what about a team, like Charlton Athletic?’ and we thought, ‘why not Athlete?’,” recalls Carey.

“The fact we’ve stayed together so long is a testament to us all working together, when lots of bands don’t have that empathy or understanding or common goal, so the team principle has served us really well.”

Athlete play The Duchess, York, tonight; doors open at 7.30pm. Box office: 0844 477 1000