Sonic Youth are one of those bands whose name can frequently be seen emblazoned on T-shirts - often worn by fashionistas who were too young to be around in the group’s pomp.

Founder Thurston Moore says he never set out to start a brand, just the sort of band he would want to see performing live; and sometimes feels a desire to ask people unlikely to be familiar with Sonic Youth’s music what their favourite albums are.

But on Friday night fans young and old will have a chance to experience the talent and experimentation which made Sonic Youth one of the most influential bands ever to leave America – when The Thurston Moore Group plays The Sugarmill in Hanley.

Thurston told StokeonTrentLive: “I have never been to Stoke-on-Trent before in memory, although it’s possible I was in the back of a van which passed through the city.

“I feel like I have played everywhere, but never in Stoke-on-Trent, so I’m really excited about playing here.”

Sonic Youth was formed in New York in 1981 by Thurston, bassist Kim Gordon, and guitarist Lee Ranaldo.

In typical rock band fashion, they went through a succession of drummers before settling on Steve Shelley in 1985.

They were famed for prepping their guitars with screwdrivers or drum sticks jammed under a particular fret to create different sounds, as well as using alternative tunings.

Sonic Youth blew up in the underground New York, then after being lauded by the NME during their first tour of Europe their shows started to sell out across America.

Sonic Youth were forerunners of the grunge scene which crossed the Atlantic in the early 1990s and were a major influence on bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and continue to influence the next generation of indie guitarists.

Their cultural status was underpinned when they appeared as themselves, in an episode of The Simpsons.

Songs like Teen Age Riot, Sugar Kane and Kool Thing sound as fresh today as they did when they were first penned.

All of which means the name Sonic Youth appears on the T-shirts of fashionable young people who may or may not be aware of albums like Goo, Dirty and Daydream Nation.

“I see more people wearing Sonic Youth T-shirts than are aware of what’s on the records,” reflected Thurston.

“That’s a sign of success, but it’s a little strange to me. That was never my agenda, but it’s happened and I accept it.

“Sometimes when I see fashionistas, who have clearly spent a bit of money on a designer T-shirt, I feel like they have no idea of what Sonic Youth is. I can’t go over and say, ‘that’s the band I was in, can I ask what your favourite albums are’?

“But I came up with that name and I see it everywhere. I feel very proud of that.

“When we started that group, to me it was wanting to create something that I would want to be part of. It was so important to me, artistically and creatively, to want to be in a band that I would want to see play.

“It was a small community in downtown New York. People were creating groups and some things stuck, some didn’t.

“We played as a trio for a time before we got a percussionist.

“We had cheap guitars, but we wanted to make them sound like something else. We didn’t want to be a traditional rock band like The Heartbreakers. We were driven by experimentation, by people like John Lydon, when he came back with Public Image Ltd.

“We would do whatever we had to do to the guitars to get different sounds. [Avant-garde composer and guitarist] Glenn Branca, who Lee and I had been playing with, supported it. He brought over a handful of pawn shop guitars and we picked them up and really started doing things.

“He put our first record out, he got a little bit of funding.

“There was no idea of making money. At the time New York was so down in the dumps that you could afford to live there without having too much money.

“We got written about in the NME when we played in England and people in New York saw and when we came back there was a lot more interest in us and we got a lot more appreciation.”

That appreciation still endures, long after the band split in 2011, after the release of their final album The Eternal, and the separation of Thurston and Kim Gordon, after 27-years of marriage.

“We existed for 30-years. We made our statement and it ended on a very good note with the last record,” said Thurston.

“I feel nothing was left unsaid.

“If we ever did come back it would have to be with chainsaws, sawing through pianos live on stage.”

As a solo artist, Thurston – who was ranked at 34 in Rolling Stone’s list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time – has continued to receive widespread acclaim.

His latest album, Spirit Counsel, has been described as ‘sonically astonishing’, by MoJo, and ‘masterful work’ by the New York Times.

It is a three-disc instrumental album, with one song on each disc – which he will perform live at the Sugarmill on Friday.

Backed by a band including Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley, and My Bloody Valentine’s Deb Googe, the performance is sure to be mesmerising – albeit unconventional.

Thurston said: “I used to see Lee [Ranaldo] playing with Glenn Branca’s group playing these long pieces of fabulous and aggressive guitar compositions. I wanted to be in that group, and I did after I answered an ad.

“We’ve now been playing [Spirit Counsel] for over a year. At first there were music stands with notations and scores written down.

“I think the audience are expecting us to play our songs and are not sure what’s going on. After about four minutes of playing there’s this surprise when they realise we are going to keep going.

“We play one of the songs, and then if there’s time, we play another.

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“But the reaction has been really positive.”

The Thurston Moore Group plays The Sugarmill, Hanley, on Friday, October 18. Tickets are available from Music Mania, Piccadilly Arcade, Hanley or by calling 0115 896 0163.

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