Saturday 23/09/06 Main Stage @ Cohesion Festival, Manchester

A gig in Manchester, in a park? We’re going to get drowned aren’t we? Apparently not, the Gods must be smiling on us today as we venture across Platt Fields on a searing sunny day. This party in a park is to help build a park, one in the war ravaged region of Kosovo, the idea influenced by Kosovan refugees in Manchester saying that the city’s green spaces helped them recover. A noble cause indeed and many musicians from Mancland and further afield have answered the call.

As we arrive, the wonderfully odd Tool Shed grace the stage with a woman wailing over what sounds like Ghost Train funk and we’re left wondering what exactly we’ve signed up for. Ex-Smith Andy Rourke then takes up DJ duty while the equipment gets shifted and kicks off with Doves ‘Catch the Sun’ which seems to capture the mood and stops us from shouting a request for ‘How Soon is Now’. Cohesion has a wonderfully chilled atmosphere and we forget we’re in the middle of bustling city as we lie on the warm grass with good music and good weather.

Former Lamb front lass Lou Rhodes is next to appear and brings the first sizeable crowd of the day. Confessing she’s “Not been to Manchester for so long”; she begins with ‘Each Moment’. Her distinctly hippy dress and some talk about ‘artificial boundaries’ is a little distracting, but no doubt sincere. Her crisp guitar flows well across the fields and she’s backed by some talented musicians, but it’s her clear but soulful voice that really carries her minimalist folk and raises Lou above being just another singer/songwriter. We get one Lamb track, ‘Gabriel’, distilled down to its powerful roots before she ends on 'Ray’. Not the loudest nor the most original of today’s acts, but one of the most talented.

It’s a quick changeover and in-between we get local strummer Jane Weaver. Also armed with an acoustic guitar, but unlike Lou she’s a little simpler in her structure and appears to have a bit of a late 1980s influence, Dash of Pixies and My Bloody Valentine in there somewhere we think. She leaves after a few songs and us wanting more. There’s a rapturous welcome for I Am Kloot which the compare introduces as “One of my favourite bands ever from Manchester’. Sound-wise they swing from the vague and spaced-out to attempts at corner-of-the-bar singalong managing to stay at virtually at the same tempo throughout and one bland song follows after another. I am Kloot seem to have epics ideas but MOR ability. If this is one of the best Manchester bands ever we’d hate to see the worst.