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The most important thing about staging such a large scale event in a park in the suburbs, where an enormous housing estate meets Studentville is crowd control. So, to be greeted by an hour and a half queue, just to get in, led me to think that the guys behind The Warehouse Project had bitten off more than they could chew. Such an experience can leave a very sour taste for the whole evening, yet once inside its instantly apparent that more consideration and planning was put into the stages, and what proves to be an excellent sound system.
The night belonged to Brown, but before he had a chance to express his cheeky Manc beats, there were sets from the likes of Bad Lieutenant, The Whip, and A Certain Ratio, the majority of which sounded excellent from what I could here behind the fence of the park, as I patiently waited in the never receding queue.
James Lavelle’s Unkle project provides the main support, and their brand of big dance beats, with soul, proves a lovely appetiser. Their short set is accompanied by the arty images depicted on the large screen at the side of the stage. Previous Richard Ashcroft collaboration ‘Lonely Soul’ swirls over this well oiled crowd, with the strings and arrangements mixing with the beats perfectly. ‘Ghosts' from their End Titles album, has a dirgier feel live, as psychedelic swirls fill the screen. ‘Hold My Hand’ continues further into Unkle’s murky bass heavy world, as the band slowly get this already heaving crowd dancing.
When it was finally time for king monkey, the crowd were so pumped up, that his choice in starting with ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ only ignited the fires further. His set remained mainly redundant in Roses material, choosing to focus on a greatest hits montage. The gentle sitar on ‘Golden Gaze’ making way for the tub thumping deep synth, shaked the makeshift arena to its core. This leads through to the funky ‘Love Like A Fountain’ enabling Brown to dust off his dancing shoes for this first time in the evening. From the harmonica interlude on ‘Corpses’ to the hands in the air, singing of ‘F.E.A.R’, Brown had a certain air of coyness, and self assurance in his stage presence. A man who knows he has amassed an impression collection of hits, each one made for such an audience.
“This ones for the girls, the most beautiful girls in the world, the Manchester girls!” announces Brown, before leading into the sinister ‘Sister Rose’. He is certainly a smoothy, I’ll give him that.
An encore of ‘Fools Gold’ and the triumphant ‘Stelify’ ensured Brown had firmly stamped his footprint in this public park’s turf.
With the crowd problems, and the large queues for everything, a lesser headline act would have struggled to drag this event out of being classed a shambles. Luckily for The Warehouse Project the only lasting impression of this evening was a cheeky local lad done good. TAGS: Ian Brown, UNKLE, Bad Lieutenant, Mr Scruff, A Certain Ratio, The Whip Words by: Andy Best |
