We spoke to the band's Jeremy Cunningham about the tour, which will see The Levellers head out across the country in support of a new album, which has already been preceded by two download-only singles.

Hailed as one of Britain's best live acts, the band is just as committed to touring and festivals as they were when they started out in 1988, and Jeremy said the lifetime of the band "hasn't felt like 20 years at all".

Sunday's show will see the band perform the tracks that have defined each phase of their career.

"We did some shows earlier in the year, and it's pretty much like a greatest hits, but we'll play five or six songs from the new album," Jeremy said.

The new record, titled Letters From The Underground and released in the summer, retains the fierce political edge that fans have come to expect from the band, and is already being hailed as a return to form.

"We wanted it to be fast and loud, like our live set," Jeremy said.

"People have always said we sound better live than on record, and we aimed for this one to sound as much like that as possible. We wanted it to be in your face, and it's informed by the events of the last couple of years."

With so much to choose from in recent years, are there any issues that have partiuclarly caught the eye of this most political of bands?

"It's nothing that people don't already know about . . . we've been so angry about Iraq and Afghanistan and the apathy at home," Jeremy said.

"They're things that people know about and acknowledge, but no one seems to be singing about it, so here we are."

The band has already raised the profile of the album by giving away two download-only singles from the record, a practice Jeremy said the band plans to adopt on a permanent basis. The internet has opened doors for bands both new and established – is it gratifying for the band to see so many artists circumventing the traditional major label way of doing things?

"Absolutely," Jeremy said.

"But we've kind of always done that – we've always been on independent labels or done things ourselves . . . we've had our own label, but we've only used it for releasing other bands' stuff in the past because it was a bit too small for a Levellers' release.

"But now with the internet support, it's big enough to release our own records – for us it's all we've ever wanted."

The band now operate as an almost independent entity, with their own studio, label and distribution, but Jeremy said it all comes at a price.

"Now we're doing everything. It's expensive – we have to play more gigs a year to release the albums, but it's very gratifying," he said.

This year the band is also set to play the Glastonbury Festival in June, and in September they will stage a once-in-a-lifetime show at the Royal Albert Hall, but Peterborough audiences can see them first.

l Support on the night will come from the city's own guitar heroes, The Brays.