Ian Brown can’t sing. He looks like the weirdest binman on the round and bobs around like a loony Mancunian bantamweight, straining for the first bell.

But when it sounds, he is greeted like the Greatest, sweeping messianic fervour through the masses packed into the Wulfrun Hall and jabbing out musical punches that leave heavyweight pretenders on the floor.

Songs as good as ‘Time is my everything’ and ‘Goodbye to the broken’ were casually tossed in, between bantering with the crowd and inviting them to ‘have a bop’.

But the faithful needed little encouragement to ‘show some motion’, especially when the Stone Roses dance classic ‘Fools Gold’ snaked in after just 20 minutes, Brown twirling the tambourine in his own trademark ‘bop’ as an ecstatic Black Country chorus line filled in for a dodgy microphone.

Of course, the evening was unconventional; there was a late start, an unscheduled five-minute ‘cocoa break’ and a set that lasted little over an hour. Normally, folk may feel short-changed, but not last night after a set of such quality, with ‘F.E.A.R’ alone justifying the ticket price and his God-like Genius award bestowed by the NME.

“I like that one so much, I’m going to do it again,” said Brown as he ripped up what running order there was and launched into new single ‘Stellify’ for the second time of the night, in what was a tantalising warm-up for main stage slots at major festivals starting next week.

Fantastic expectations at Reading.

Review by Keith Harrison.

The following review was sent in by P Mitchell:

Ian Brown kicked off the first of his 2009 UK tour dates last night at the Wulfrun Hall in front of a sell-out crowd.

It was the first in a line of gigs which sees Browny perform tracks from his new album “My way” and due for release Sept26th.

Last night’s set opened with “Sister rose” from his last album outing, “The world is yours” and moved through tracks from his previous albums much to the crowds enjoyment and chants of “Ian brown Ian Brown Ian Brown.”

King Monkey himself was indeed on form and looked pleased to be in front of an audience and encouraged the crowd to “Do a bit of boppin.” Performances of “Golden gaze,” “F.E.A.R.” “Corpses in their mouths” and other classics including The Stone Roses timeless classic – “Fools gold” culminated in 2 new tracks – “Crowning of the poor” and the not yet released “Stellify” before a brief break in the set. The man himself said that the audience looked tired and he was “Gonna have a quick break of toast and cocoa.”

The Ex Stone Roses front-man returned for encore to perform “Stellify” one more time exclaiming “I’m gonna do this one again coz I like it” in his manc twang. To be honest so do I. I have to admit I think it’s his best yet.

The Godlike genius in my view is still king monkey but is showing his age now. My only disappointment was that the set only lasted 65mins including the encore. The track “marathon man” didn’t make it to the set list and in his own lyrics I think he’s still got “miles and miles still left to run.”

A good show and a great performance to a warm crowd. I can’t wait to catch up with him again in November and in my view he did indeed, Stellify the night last night.

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