It must be one of the most unlikely rehearsal rooms in Bradford.

But the battered caravan, huddled in undergrowth, which Lianne Hall calls home is the place where The Hiphuggers make a lot of their music.

And the van, part of a thriving encampment on spare land near the city's university, is about to find itself in the limelight.

Lianne is one of the Bradford musicians featured in a new television series about up-and-coming performers.

Veteran Radio 1 DJ John Peel visited towns and cities up and down the country for the series to be called Sound of the Suburbs and due to be screened on Channel 4 from the end of February.

As part of the programme focusing on Bradford, which is scheduled to be shown on April 2, he was filmed meeting Lianne in her caravan.

"It was very informal. They just came with a camera and filmed us talking and me playing a song," she said.

Lianne and cellist Bela have been together as The Hiphuggers for about five years, but Bela missed out on the chance to feature in the John Peel programme because she was in Brittany.

The pair came together when they met at a disco which Bela was putting on at the 1 in 12 club in Bradford. Since then they have gigged all over the country, sometimes as a three-piece, also featuring sax player John.

"It's not so much a fluid line-up as a fluid thing altogether. It's not a fixed thing," said Lianne.

"It works really well just the two of us. It doesn't take much rehearsal time and there's not really any band politics," added Bela.

"When you've been working on other projects it's nice for us to come back together. It's quite unpressured."

The Hiphuggers have also recorded a demo called Drunk and last night they were one of the bands on the bill of Shandyland, a new showcase evening being staged at the New Beehive in Bradford.

Bela, who is also in a new band called Shiny Beast and is involved in other musical projects including a jazz duo, said it was hard to pinpoint The Hiphuggers' style.

"It's acoustic, that's the main thing. It's one of the most folky things that I do," she said.

Lianne, who is originally from Peterborough and came to Bradford to study, added: "I was brought up on the folk circuit but I never quite fitted in."

She now plans to quit her job at Waterstone's bookshop in Bradford to travel around the country's festival circuit this summer, working and playing her own music.

"I've got a job with a veggie catering stall and hopefully I'll start in May and go through until September, doing events like Glastonbury and WOMAD," said Lianne.

"I went to Glastonbury last year and it was horrible. Hopefully it will be better this time."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.