ONE of Britain's leading art-rock electronica bands, Hood, are to play a free event on St Valentine's night at a suitably intimate North Yorkshire venue.

Labelmates of Franz Ferdinand, the Leeds trio's concert at the Blues Bar in Harrogate on Monday is a coup for cult promoters Charm, who ran their own music magazine for York and Leeds in the late 90s.

Charm organiser Graham Chalmers has been in negotiations for six months to gain the band's agreement to appear at this Montpellier Parade bar, which has a capacity of less than 100.

"They've been one of the most brilliant bands musically in Britain for a long time and really didn't need to play Harrogate at all! I think they liked the idea of the night. We've always tried to challenge musical boundaries," Chalmers says.

Described by The Guardian as "the boldest music made in Britain this year", Hood record for Domino, the label responsible for Elliott Smith, Four Tet and Pavement as well as Franz Ferdinand.

The band's enigmatic founders, brothers Chris and Richard Adams, are no great lovers of the limelight and present much of their image on specially shot films projected on stage in concert.

Monday's 8pm show is a rare appearance in such a small venue for Hood, who are expected to showcase tracks from last month's new album, Outside Closer, on which they move away from Mogwai-indebted post-rock soundscapes to a richer folk-electronica sound.

Updated: 15:28 Thursday, February 10, 2005