It looks like Christmas is about to get a lot more stylish.

Forget Santa hats, antlers and festive jumpers, it’s time to break out the fedoras, zoot suits, flapper dresses and feather boas to celebrate – prohibition style.

Oxford’s jazz-jive party animals The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band are on a seven-man mission to put some swing back into the festive season, by taking us all back to the 1920s.

“We’re a seven-man rhythm and blues orchestra who want to bring glamour back to the suit and tie – and Christmas is the perfect place to start,” says frontman ‘Baron’ Stuart Macbeth, who is talking to me mid-way through a raucous rehearsal. The rest of the band can be heard running through new songs in the next room – so loudly, in fact, that I fear for the plasterwork.

“Jeans and T-shirts are the outfits of office workers and bank managers now,” he adds. “David Cameron wears jeans when he wants to look like he’s with the kids. It’s time we reclaimed the suit.”

The show, at the O2 Academy Oxford tomorrow, rounds off a great period for the band after the release of debut album Year of the Rabbit.

They made history earlier this year by releasing a single on a two-minute phonographic wax cylinder – a format obsolete for almost a century – and follow it up this coming year with a new album and the release of their own brand of cider.

Hearing the slick outfit at work today, it’s hard to believe the band began life as a washboard, banjo and harmonica three-piece. With Stuart at the helm it has grown into a powerful jump-blues beast, featuring saxophonists ‘Muggsy’ West and ‘Red’ Wilkins, upright bassman ‘Buzz’ Booker, guitarist Carlo Matassa, drummer John ‘Skippy’ Gannon, and new trumpeter ‘King’ Martin.

“We started out as a skiffle group in a tiny East Oxford house,” recalls Stuart. “But our music’s more sophisticated these days and features a great brass section – but we maintain skiffle attitude.”

And while the songs sound like they are straight out of a 1920s Chicago speakeasy, they are practically all new tunes, written by Stuart. He says: “When I dig deep inside to write a song, I need what comes out to be completely honest, and for me honesty sounds like Bessie Smith or The Carter Family.

"It’s not a conscious attempt to sound like we’re from a bygone age. You can follow a lineage from raw, early Gospel records we like, through blues, country and soul and right up to rap and grime. I feel we’re part of that tradition; we just forked off in a completely different direction.

“That old jazz and blues stuff always gets me... but I can’t relate to songs about Mississippi paddle steamers and New Orleans. On our last record we started off with a train journey from London to Penzance and ended up jumping off a pier in Margate opposite the derelict Dreamland fun park. This time we’ve dug deeper.

"It’s like we went for the essence of an English blues record. There’s a lot of May Day imagery, Leviathan, folklore stuff, and Charles II and his mistresses – though on this occasion his mistress is a swimming pool, filled with port. It’s powerful stuff – and we go calypso on a few numbers. I’ve been living this stuff; it’s like method acting for a songwriter.”

And he can’t wait to try it out on a hometown audience. “It’s hugely exciting,” he grins. “I’m at a rehearsal now and we have nine songs ready to go. By March, we’ll have the whole set ready.”

The band take their name from a vintage black touring troupe, while the term ‘spasm’ is a reference to the bands who played New Orleans at the turn of the last century with homemade instruments. And their reputation has spread far and wide, with gigs in venues as diverse as the Glastonbury, Truck and Bestival festivals, Cowley Road Carnival, The Royal Albert Hall, Ronnie Scott’s and the Royal Festival Hall.

But, says Stuart, it’s always great to come home – especially at Christmas, to meet their biggest fans. He adds: “When it comes to show time it’s all about the audience – and I’ve met some of the loveliest people at our gigs.

“We’ve been building up to this gig all year. It’ll be like the rest of the year never happened! Watch out for a few Christmas numbers, surprise guests and our amazing new player ‘King’ Martin blasting his trumpet like Gideon. I cannot wait!”

  • The Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band’s Christmas Knees-up O2 Academy, Oxford, Tomorrow (Friday), doors 8pm
  • Support from Count Aidan Skylarkin’
  • Tickets £8 from ticketweb.co.uk