Flag of Convenience and Happy Mondays Manchester

FLAG OF CONVENIENCE / HAPPY MONDAYS / IGNITION

Manchester

A SWIFT glance around confirmed it. This wasn't the place to be. It seemed as if Bruce Springsteen was playing in the pub down the road. It was if there never existed a band called the Buzzcocks. And then...

Suddenly a major performance was born out of the disaster. Ignition (the brightest sparks on the Mancunian circuit) fell foul of a nasty virus. Only their lead singer, a cocky little chap of no more than 17, bounded furiously onto the deadening stage and hurled himself into an impromptu Billy Bragg set.

His enthusiasm was ably supported by great songs, a great voice and a sackful of the purest talent I've seen for many a year. Guts and confidence grabbed our attention. Amazingly well-crafted melodies made me yearn to see the band in full. The little lad chugged away, using his naivety as a defence, using his youthful vibrancy as an attack and forcefully throwing his all into a set which boasted a social commentary worthy of those twice his age. He won our hearts. He won an encore. Amazing.

And that was that. Happy Mondays spent twenty minutes supplying us with positive proof that Factory's roster is little more than a den full of hippies these days. If their maudlin strumming didn't confirm this, then the band did as they searched the crowd for 'draw' after the set.

Flag Of Convenience were a mixture of clumsiness and fading hope. Constant heavy drumming pounded the would-be songs into the ground. Diggle is a nice guy but one felt so helpless as an onlooker. Such experience and yet they just couldn't erase the memory of that superb opening set. Funny #1 that. I stayed for 20 minutes, I needed no excuses for leaving.

MICK MIDDLES