Hard-Fi frontman Richard Archer has spoken of the heartbreak of losing his mum on the eve of his first album's release.

The 30-year-old from Staines recorded an album with his band in a disused mini-cab office and put out 1,000 copies in 2004.

When it sold out, they re-recorded the album as Stars of CCTV with Atlantic in 2005 but Archer's mum died the day before it hit the shelves.

"The one person you want to see that you've finally done it. To be able to say, 'let's go on holiday, let's do all those things we always talked about'," Archer told The Telegraph.

"But the feeling was I haven't got time to grieve, because I can't let this fail, this is my parents' legacy now, so I've just kept going and going."

Hard-Fi, who can name Paul Weller, Billy Bragg and Mick Jones of the Clash among their fans, release second album Once Upon a Time in the West next month.

All the band members come from Staines.

"Where we come from is central to what we do," said Archer. "The thing about Staines is that it could be any town, it's the satellite of a big city where most people tend to live out their lives.

"For us it was this or bust. It was never like, 'let's not rehearse tonight, let's go to a gig or check out a photo exhibition'. There was nothing else to do."

Archer studied music and technology at Kingston University but returned to Staines when his dad died and started an independent label and recruited the other band members.

Suburban Knights will be the first single released but Archer said it was the song King that surprised him most. The opening line is "In this town I used to be the king."

"That's me," said Archer. "King of Staines. I thought I'd be long gone by now, but when you do finally get the opportunity to leave, you start to notice the good points.

"And the main good point is that all my friends are in Staines. I could go and live in New York with my platinum discs, but who would I go down the pub with?"