Versus Cancer 12th Dec 2009 Charity Gig Attracts New Acts: The Twang, Codeine Velvet Club and more

Versus Cancer

As previously reported, the charity Versus Cancer has a major event coming up on December 12th (this Saturday). The object of the night is to raise money for research and rehab provision for sufferers, particularly within the Greater Manchester area. Snow Patrol, Happy Mondays, james and Peter Hook / Andy Rourke (as two-thirds of Freebass) have already been confirmed for the bill and tickets are still available for £32.50 plus fees.

A load of new acts have been added to the bill including The Twang, Puressence and the much fancied Codeine Velvet Club. Hey Zeus and KiD BRiTiSH complete the pretty strong line-up. The interesting addition here is Puressence, a band who formed straight after the Spike Island gig by The Stone Roses in 1991. In eighteen years they have released just four albums, the most notable being 'Only Forever' in 1998 (it reached number 36 on the UK Albums Chart). Mani of the Roses produced one of the songs. Their most recent albums have both stormed the Greece charts for some curious reason but didn't set the UK world on fire, although a single, 'Drop Down To Earth', achieved respectable acclaim.

Last year's event sported fine performances from The Farm, Inspiral Carpets, The Enemy as well as this year's stars, The Mondays. The concert came to an end with a fitting tribute to Mr Manchester, Tony Wilson, who died from cancer the year before. The motto - check yourself.

Paul Pledger