Friday 14/10/05 Alabama 3 @ Pacific Road Arts Centre, Birkenhead

Recipe for Sweet Country Acid House Music

Step One: Take a couple of lads with colorful backgrounds; relocate to London from all over the United Kingdom. Adopt southern accent and southern-state relating moniker, centering around the stool bound Larry Love and the Very Reverend Dr D Wayne Love.

Step Two: Imbibe various recreational substances.

Step Three: Mix up 4 ounces of country sensibilities with a splash, to taste, of roughly chopped electronic beats and some synths. Add these to two pints worth of full fat lyrics generally about drugs in some way, shape or form. And perhaps the odd harmonica solo from The Mountain Of Love himself. Brilliantly realized in 'I Ain’t Going To Goa'.

Step Four: Add in one whole Woody Guthrie, if this is unavailable, playing a gem about the lightly pickled country legend to a rapturous reception will suffice.

‘Step Five D. Wayne’: Bring out a young lady with the voice of a country angel to neatly spice the mix here and there. This may produce a few interesting dance moves but it’s all part of the show.

Step Six: Stir in a fist full of subversive, underground rave politics, always keeping dance music just under the boil, avoiding the glossy magazine mega club insincerity.

Step Seven: Place the mixture in a council funded arts centre on the edge of a big city for an hour and a half. Fill any spare space with an audience, the average being forty; baste lightly in overpriced beer and a sprinkling of herbs, according to tolerance.

The mixture may not really kick off till the end of the gig, remaining quite respectful and well behaved for most of the time. There of course may be a huge fight, but this is easily removed with the aid of a strong bouncer or seven, who will then spend the rest of Hypo Full Of Love outside scrapping. Watch out for the police cars and ambulance when it is time to remove the audience from the centre. All this adds up to a different creative blend that will fill your stomach and impress anyone around the table at Sunday dinner with both the music and the amusement.