MUSIC IN MANCHESTER
	Divine Brown Retro Bar, 31/8/01

"I thought I might see you in this (allegedly) god-forsaken, decrepit pit of hellishness." It's good to have friends eh? So here we are to witness the third live performance by Divine Brown, a 4 piece containing a mixture of Yorkshire & cockney musos.    The layout of the venue hasn't changed much since it's previous guises of "The Swinging Sporran" & "Kilties", though the wagon wheel has disappeared.    Somehow it has managed to avoid the seemingly relentless "development/modernisation" progamme that has enveloped the area like rash spreading at a speed that makes the outbreak of foot & mouth look decidedly sluggish.

Situated on the edge of UMIST, it remains a site impervious to whatever is going on the "real world", i.e. typical of student life, and ideal for the fare that lays in wait for us tonight

Descending the stairs that all genuine "dives" have, leads one to a Tardis type area, where the number of people that can cram into the venue doesn't seem to match the space.   As such the band are cramped into the corner next to the bar, floor level, no stage.

Presumably it was kept relatively low key for the band wanting to gain the stage experience, but with members of Los Nachos, Jackie O, Polythene, Tsuji, John Robb etc. taking places in the crowd, the initial vibes seemed promising.

Half past midnight, and the band move out of the shadows past the punters at the bar and take their positions, then positively launch into the opening number "Brown got Da Power", a stripped down, adrenaline fueled, sweat driven blast down the path of rock'n'roll.

Never mind the 140 beats-per-minute talk of dance music, here we have a drummer who starts at that, then speeds up to prove he is only just getting into a bit of a rhythm..

A 30 minute set that includes "Kranked Up", "I got the fire", " Fist Full of Fuzz" grabs the attention, flashing past in a blur of surf influenced numbers.      The band, in their "uniform" of white shirts individually embroiled with each members icons e.g. playing card symbols, poker die, reclining women etc., unite in a torrent of freshly generated impetus that is rapturously received by the impressed onlookers

From the lineage that inspires the likes of "Jackie O", "Los Nachos" etc., this lot will either cut a blazing path through the bloated excess that reflects the current state of music or will be remembered reverently

Whichever, it will be a fiery spectacular, so catch them while you can

Ged Camera

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