JSU Live Review
By Owen/Sugar (JSU Contributor & Forum Moderator)





Aziz
Manchester Dry Bar
28th October 2005


Friday night I saw Aziz. I got to meet him beforehand as he was just wandering around. We were first in and it was empty for a long time, with just Azizs' crew along with the support acts. Anyway I got him to sign "Golden Greats" for me. He was a nice bloke. Very down to earth. Had a 5 minute chat with him, mainly about the night ahead and Ian Brown. He said he spoke to Ian a few days ago, and that he's been asked to support him on this upcoming tour but he told him he wanted to "get his own thing" going and so is busy until the new year. However, he said he was tempted to change his mind and is unsure whether to now do the shows. I also had a brief chat to his tabla player, Dalbir Singh Rattan. Another nice bloke.

The bar consisted of 2 floors (a ground floor and a basement). Aziz was playing on the ground floor where you could either watch near the stage or sit down by the bar and watch on a projected screen. I chose to witness him in the flesh. I'm estimating there were probably around 300 people on that floor (with probably less than 100 watching him from the stage), but thats a rough estimate and I could be wildly wrong either way. The crowd appeared to be a mix of Azizs' friends and followers, Stone Roses fans and locals.

The support acts were Liam Fry and a band called International One. Both seemed local but were okay support acts with a reasonable following. International One finished their set with a cover of "Elephant Stone" which went down particulary well with the Manchester crowd.

Aziz walked cooly onto the stage at 11.30/12.00. The performance was very consistant. He played a couple of Brown classics, "My Star" and "Corpses", along with his own stuff. He also teased the crowd by playing the start to "Love Spreads" for about 10 seconds!!! Midway through the set Dalbir decided to light a spliff. My mate reached out for it and after Dalbir had his share, he handed it to my good friend. God knows what was in it as it sent my mate, who is an experienced weed smoker, on a mental journey for a good part of half an hour. Aziz finished about 2.00, "a late gig" as he earlier told me. He left a small but intimate crowd very satisfied.



If anyone else writes a review that they would like considered for the JSU Reviews section, mail them to me at admin@john-squire.com or post them on the forum adding a note that you'd like it to be considered.



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