Tom Hingley tells Charles Hutchinson about the reborn Inspiral Carpets.

INSPIRAL Carpets have re-formed but with no wish to re-conquer the world with their organ-driven pop. Enjoyment will do.

Once part of the hip Madchester psychedelic scene that spawned the Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Charlatans, the Oldham band bowed out with a posthumous compilation The Singles in 1995.

Since that time singer Tom Hingley has formed The Lovers - still an on-going project - while keyboards player Clint Boon has pursued solo ambitions.

However, Hingley and Boon have dusted off the Carpets, and after spring shows and the summer festival season, they are undertaking an autumn tour, playing York Barbican Centre on Tuesday.

"It just seemed natural to come back, though we have very limited goals this time, only promoting ourselves in the UK," says Hingley, 38. "Some bands come back and want to conquer the world but the world has moved on, and we're not pretending we're even the biggest band in Bulgaria!"

Instead, the enjoyment lies in playing the hits that brought them one million sales between 1986 and 1994. Eleven Top 40 hits came their way with the likes of This Is How It Feels, She Comes In The Fall, Dragging Me Down, Saturn 5 and I Want You, and four Top 20 albums, Life (1990), The Beast Inside (1991), Revenge Of The Goldfish (1992) and Devil Hopping (1994).

"We had an amazing career in the late '80s, early '90s, but though we were always depicted as a band in control of ourselves, week by week we were gradually losing control, and I wouldn't want to return to that," says Hingley.

"Nothing gives me more pleasure than knowing we're not going to have to go through that thing of having to have hits. All that pressure. We've done all that."

For that reason, he is ambivalent about doing a new Inspirals album.

"I don't know about that. If you asked all the different members of the band you might get different answers. Me personally? I would say 'No'," he says.

"I don't think the fans want to hear new songs. In 1989-1990, having our ears to the ground meant having seven singles out in quick succession, doing a new one every three months; now it means we're aware there may be no demand for us to come back full time. That might spoil the legacy."

Hingley sees no point in seeking to take on emerging bands. "It's difficult for a band of our ilk, where we're not considered a classic band like the Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd, so the monthly music mags won't write about us, but nor can we compete with the Libertines, White Stripes, Jet and all those fantastic new bands," says Hingley.

"Nowadays is a good time to be 13 because there's lot of good new bands around, and I don't think it would serve us well to pretend to be that age again."

Instead, Inspiral Carpets are honouring their legacy with Cool As, a deluxe triple-CD package incorporating a DVD, released by Mute in May.

The band once purported to be "Cool As ****", one of the motifs of the Madchester era, as emblazoned on their infamous T-shirts. "I don't think the notion of cool exists today: the only thing that is cool is wondering whether we were ever cool or not," says Hingley.

"When I was into punk, it was because it was against the mainstream, but now being snotty is mainstream, and you have kids asking if mum has washed their Linkin Park T-shirt for them."

Putting Hingley on the spot, why would he recommend seeing the Inspirals now? "I know people always say this, but I'm not convinced that we're going to do many more shows because we're all busy with other things. So if you want to see a real Madchester band - Stones Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspirals - we're the only one functioning," Hingley says.

"If you were too young, or too stoned to remember, or you just want to laugh at people older than you on stage, then come along on Tuesday.

"I don't want people to think we're going to do this all the time, every year. It's something very special for us to be doing these shows now."

Inspiral Carpets, York Barbican Centre, Tuesday, 7.30pm. Tickets: £18.50 on 01904 656688.

Updated: 10:20 Friday, November 28, 2003