The sonorous six renegades that are THE BRIDGE elected to set up using the inverted T formation made famous by Carol Vorderman and her Countdown contestants, as the five musicians menacingly lined up on the stage and singer Robert “man of the people” Gough took to the floor inches away from his adoring public.
The rasping Led Zeppelin-spiced-up-with-prime-bits-of-AC/DC rock marathon that is ‘Live Fast/Die young’, set things up for an all singing, all-dancing set of raucous rock at its best. After the second track ‘Back Door Man’ featuring grinding guitars led by the mercurial Mike Bee and the howling prime time Jagger-style vocals of Gough, the bruising band grabbed hold of the audience attention with the ferocity of a Jack Russell with something tasty in its mouth and refused to let go.
As the set progressed, the melee of dancing and rocking became more frenetic in line with the music The Bridge relentlessly churned out. The highlight of the set was the quirky and catchy ‘PYT’ which was catapulted into the compelling category by Monkey’s psychedelic synths. Crowd favourite and Iggy and the Stooges cover ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ came during the latter stages of the set and was pure garage rock at its dingiest. Tonight proved that The Bridge have become like Carlsberg Export and live up the adage: “Warrington will be sad to see them leave, as much as the rest of the world will be glad to see them arrive”.
After Mani’s lacklustre effort at the art of DJing here a few months hence, it was left to another Madchester legend to restore faith in celebrity DJ’s; the ex Inspiral Carpets keyboardist Mr. CLINT BOON.
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Clint has always had stage presence and contributed to the banter and atmosphere that the Carpets were synonymous with creating, so it was no surprise that he and his Boon Army made for an after show party style atmosphere befitting the mood created by The Bridge.
The people on the dance floor and its surrounding areas tonight included Clint’s Tom Hingley (Ex Inspiral Carpets front man) and engaging banter and chants of “Boon Army, Boon Army” were prevalent throughout the set. The masses soon turned into the barmy army with Clint doling out dance floor fillers such as ‘Pounding’ by The Doves and of course the Carpets classic ‘Saturn 5’. Naturally tunes from Manchester bands such as The Stone Roses, The Smiths and New Order formed no small part of the funky set of indie and disco grooves. The Boon Army is a growing troop and they will soon win the battle against the cheese churners that call themselves DJs you mark my words.
www.clintboon.com
www.about-the-weekend.co.uk
www.wa1venuebar.moonfruit.com
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