THE JOY The Pavilion, Salford University 7/10/93

If it's Fresher's Week it must be Bjorn Again...not here, fortunately. We get The Joy, forever slightly famous a) for containing part-time Electronic and Primal Scream vocalist Denise Johnson, and b) for making 27-minute long singles that pilfer old Pink Floyd riffs...and, wonder of wonders, they were really quite good. Denise acts like an unfortunate genetic accident involving all the (ex) members of the Happy Mondays, and their other vocalist is clearly under the impression that he's God, or at least some minor Biblical figure, but they're still very entertaining.

Musically they're obviously similar to Primal Scream, but with nods to other dance bands such as Stereo MCs, or a recently bathed Back To The Planet. "Shine" only lasted for twenty minutes tonight, the "Crazy Diamond" intro bit got dropped, and there did seem to be something of a pre-recorded precision to the backing tracks...but at least the wind-chimes were live. And the lighting was good too. The Joy are well-recommended by me should they be appearing in a Students Union near you.