Wednesday 06/10/04 Pink Grease @ Roadhouse, Manchester

Gigwise favourite’s Pink Grease are back on tour following the release of their debut album 'This Is The End', a visceral forty minutes of late seventies punk, home-made disco and trashy make up, during the summer. Three years of touring has spread the word when it comes to the band’s chaotic approach to live performance on, and off stage.

With all six members crammed on stage like tonight at the Manchester Roadhouse, it’s no wonder that bassist Stuart Faulkner has foam wrapped his guitar as it swings violently above the front row. Starting with 'Fever' - the band’s call to arms - the years of hard work have paid off making their £7 show a must for everybody.

It’s hard to argue with this year’s Q award for Best Live Band going to the ‘rock opera’ of Muse but with bands like Pink Grease providing equal shows from a minutia of the budget; serving to help the government achieve it’s aim of at least a half hour of raised heartbeats. It seems like bands like this are shamefully overlooked. Despite sound problems and some dodgy out of tune backing vocals in the first half of the set there’s, nobody left that’s not suffering some kind of dancing fit to 'Superfool' (highly recommended for dangerously illegal speeding down Hampshire’s motorways) or DVD single the 'Nasty Show'.

This is the fourth time I’ve seen Pink Grease live, if the band were summed up in a single word following a gig then ‘auh’ would probably be all one could jibber. Gigwise can’t find a word in the dictionary which strongly enough impresses the imperative people should feel to see this band and at eight quid the album’s a snip too.