So, that said, Britney Spears must be feeling a lot of pressure right now as she continues filming her sitcom cameo for How I Met Your Mother.

But it's OK, because Britney Spears seems to be coping well at her new job. That's partly because her How I Met Your Mother co-stars are being somewhat effusive with their praise for her, and partly because Britney Spears clearly doesn't have the self-awareness to realise that every last frame of her cameo is going to be scrutinised for signs of mental illness until it makes the Zapruder film look like a YouTube video of a kitten in a mug.

Britney Spears and her people have had a pretty good handle on her post meltdown rehabilitation so far. It's basically involved listening to her father, spooking out a few children to keep her toe in and staying out of everyone's way. It's worked well so far, especially the latter – to protect her from public inspection, Britney Spears doesn't even appear in her new music video – but it might all be about to come crashing down around everyone's ears. 

As we reportedly yesterday, Britney Spears is filming a cameo for How I Met Your Mother. As far as we could see, there wasn't a single positive we could take from the news – Britney was opening herself up to the public too soon, we said, plus she was rubbish in Will and Grace. But worst of all, by stating that she wanted 'a small part in a funny show' and then ending up on How I Met Your Mother, Britney Spears is clearly far more deranged than we could have ever known.

However, all our concerns were unfounded. Britney Spears has actually started to film her How I Met Your Mother spot and, as E! Online reports, her co-stars have all been quick to find polite ways to say that she isn't completely awful while denying that it's all a con to get people to watch the show:

[Neil Patrick] Harris—who more or less agreed with "quite impressed" costar Alyson Hannigan that Spears was doing a "good job" in her bit role as a sweet-natured receptionist at a dermatologist's office… said the only thing that concerned him about the pop star's very prominent presence was what the casting coup implied about the show's status. "It wasn't like CBS or How I Met Your Mother is trying to get ratings and said, Who can we star-cast to get attention," Harris said. "We were literally just filming last week and told, 'You're not going to believe who just called and said they wanted to be on the show.'"

It's true – although Britney appearing on How I Met Your Mother just seems like kneejerk opportunistic casting to boost rating of a show that fell into a lull about a millisecond after the start of the first episode, it absolutely isn't the case.

And it's a pure coincidence that, after Britney Spears, the next guest stars on How I Met Your Mother will include Michael Jackson, Phil Spector, the ghost of all 11 orbital Soviet space dogs and Chemical Ali. They all just happened to phone up and ask to be on the show, and who are the How I Met Your Mother producers to turn anyone down?

Well, except for Madonna. They'd turn her down if she asked. Honestly, did you see her on Will & Grace?

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Brit Concerns, Impresses Mother Stars - E! Online

Still you can't have everything you want in life, but regardless of our own potential ego-boosting propaganda of this band not being recognised, the venue was still rammed to capacity. For those who had never been to the place before, it was a unique little venue. The theatre-style layout presented the perfect viewing platform from nearly every angle. Though if you wanted to be packed in close with your fellow gig-goer, the chance was still there.

After being stopped and hassled by security who had nothing better to do, we were able to enter the venue and walk straight in to support band Apostle Of Hustle's set. As they are on the same label as Stars, the style of the band wasn't that to dissimilar of who we'd came to see. This three-piece however had some unique quirky ideas of their own.

Looking they hadn't dressed for a week or so, there sound managed to combine a mix ranging from samba to indie to hints of electronica and post rock. Obviously ones not shy of mixing things up, they waltzed around the stage like they'd played there plenty of times before. The highlight of the set came when they presented a song written about former N.W.A member Easy E. This strange guitar-based ballad saw the drummer leave his sticks behind as he prepared to sit on a block of wood in the middle of the stage. Simply using his hands, he banged away as the other members played.

At roughly 9.30pm, Stars were finished setting up their various bits of equipment and graced the stage to huge whoops and cheers from the adoring audience. Now, it's always good when a band you like plays a song you really enjoy. So imagine our joy after they tuned up their instruments and kicked off the night with our favourite song Ageless Beauty from the album Set Yourself On Fire. We were quite overjoyed and fully expect to see Youtube footage appearing on the internet soon with our dog-like howls ruining the entire thing.

Whilst the band were on a tour to publicise copies of their newest album In Our Bedroom After The War they didn't forget about all of their other material and played a comfortable mix of songs from the current crop to the older and more obscure stuff. Each song went down a storm with the crowd and it was clear from the energy the crowd generated fed back to the band. They almost seemed overwhelmed with the response that they were getting and it wasn't until the final song of the evening – the title track from their newest album, that the looks of joy and happiness appeared on their faces.

Nothing could be faulted. Even the set-up on stage had its own unique little touch to it. Various lamps decorated the set and it gave the night an almost homely feel. The band were even giving things to the crowd in an almost panto style. Flowers were being thrown in to the audience throughout the night which we can only assume caused mini riots between various groups of girls as they fought for a free present.

Though true to the finale of a theatre production, every single flower should have been tossed back on to the stage to congratulate the band on an excellent performance.

Not only do they have lyrics that almost tell some sort of narrative and paint pretty pictures in our mind, but they've thankfully go the right kind of vocalist to transfer this over to the audience as well. Not once, but twice. Torquil Campbell and Amy Millan have the sort of mesmerising voices that we could easily listen to all night. Their mix of dark moody electronics combined with an uncomplicated backdrop of indie is simple and oh so effective.

Stars don't quite count as electro pop, their music almost has its own style. Up-tempo and feel-good beats constantly come across in random parts before plunging back to head-bouncing keyboard synths.  

Both vocalists and fellow band-member Evan Cranley are already members of another Canadian band that we love – Broken Social Scene. We won’t go into much detail about them, but rest assured that the contrast of sounds between the two bands is big enough for us to know that the Stars sound is a unique one to them and no ideas are being pinched. 

Normally we’d run through some of the tracks and point out a few reasons why they kick arse, but with the whole of their latest album In Our Bedroom After The War all available to listen to, we’ll leave it for you to pick a favourite song and hopefully invest in another band who are so close to breaking through to the commercial sector. Though for a starting point, listen to Midnight Coward for an overview of the sound of Stars.

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Stars MySpace page