Keith / Onions / Kev Fox

Channel M are filming a second series of their Saturday night ‘Great Northern Music Show’ and for a second time the Manchester acclaimed Working For a Nuclear Free City have let them down. This time, their excuse is that the bass player had forgotten that he was off to see Arcade Fire with his mum. Trouble is, he didn’t remember until 4pm before the gig, so a very late replacement was sought.

That emergency substitute, Kev Fox, was due to be dating tonight - instead the lucky lady has been brought along for morale support. She can only have been impressed for Fox’s music is always engaging and often mesmerising. Using technology to the full to create his own loops to play over, the stand out track is opener ‘Help Yourself’. Its ascending mono-syllabic delivery is lovely, the echoing voice building an atmospheric mood, and whilst during the performance he’s not animated or chatty, he has songs that can grab your attention – promising.

Next up are Onions. Some people think I’m a loon, but I’ve always though of onions of being the most pointless vegetable, spoiling every dish they taint, and when two of the first 3 songs appear to be about pizza, there seems to be little point to this band's tunes either. But that IS the point, Onions claim to sing about things mainstream bands shun - like food allergies, bicycles, beards and building sites! Forget worthiness, it’s all about fun and dancing as far as they are concerned.

But there’s a problem – with their changes of pace in the songs, including three in the first minute of ‘Look Like a Loser’, they are almost impossible to dance to. Still, their Zutons, La’s, even Dave Clarke Five influenced songs are a bunch of fun, as they intended, helped by their being a likeable trio with a quick quip always at the ready. Top marks too for what I believe to be the first use of ‘surreptitiously’ in a chorus.

The last time I saw Keith I felt there were two things that might hamper their progress. Firstly there was that terrible band name which amazingly seems to have worked. Secondly front man Oli Bayston was permanently seated during the performance, which always detaches an audience, but that has been solved with Bayston now on his feet throughout this show, with a variety of microphones carefully positioned around the stage depending on whether he was playing guitar, keys or glockenspiel.

He’s a confident performer too, and it’s no surprise because their songs, which send a knowing nod to the days of baggy, are pretty strong, driven throughout by the funky bass of John Waddington and mixed with some nifty drumming and nagging guitar. It is an energetic and hi tempo mix from the start and Bayston is sweating profusely from song one.

Former single ‘Hold That Gun’ warms the audience up too, and has them shouting for their Keith favourite ‘Mona Lisa Smile’. ‘That’s a Julia Roberts movie’ he tells the red faced punter, but here’s ‘Mona Lisa Child’.

It’s not hard to see why the crowd was baying for the tune as Bayston’s vocal introduction builds before that irresistible bass kicks in once more to hypnotise the watcher. Bayston is soon off stage (although it’s only about 6 inches high) and singing eyeball to eyeball with the crowd, only a camera track separating them. Then, the tune cools and is stripped down for the sheer pleasure of subtly adding everything back into the mix one by one for a final crescendo. It’s the stand out moment of the night, and on its own proves worth a few quid entrance to see the band when they are in your area.

You can judge this gig for yourself when it is broadcast on Channel M, available nationwide on Channel 203 on satellite, on Saturday at 10:30pm.

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