Things have never quite worked out for One Night Only. They’ve had enough lucky breaks to last most new acts a decade, but have never managed to turn any of them into chart success. Signed on the back of the huge success of poppy indie bands like the Kaiser Chiefs and Killers, their label has lavished thousands trying to make them into a household name and yet they’re still playing to half full venues, including the top room of the O2 Academy tonight.

Their debut single was chosen as the theme tune to an expensive Channel 4 teen drama, which included rising stars Aaron Johnson and Talulah Riley in the cast, only for the show to be cancelled owing to poor ratings. The promotional video for their new single Say You Don’t Want It even starred Harry Potter actress Emma Watson; the track still tanked, only reaching number 23 in the charts.

There’s no reason One Night Only shouldn’t be filling bigger places than this; they’re a tight live act and they do have a gift for writing big, star-gazing songs with choruses that jump into life, underpinned by poppy electronics that sound as if they’ve been lifted straight from a fairground ride.

Throughout the gig, though, it feels like something’s not quite there. The scale of their songs is never matched by any sense of intensity or feeling, making it feel like they’re carefully engineered rather than lovingly created. Sometimes it works really well, like on Just For Tonight or Say You Don’t Want It, which could easily by sung back to them by thousands of people, but other tracks like Chemistry and Bring Me Back Down are flat and feel like album fillers.

One Night Only are a solid indie band with a couple of really good songs, but tonight, you get the feeling that they’re never going to hit the heights they dreamed they would.