Postponements and cancellations have meant I had to wait until now for it to finally happen. Was it worth the wait? A resounding YES.

First up were two local bands of which I only caught snippets between visits to the garden (it was finally sunny!) and the bar.
Providing competition with the council's free outdoor show was obviously going to be a tall order –– but the Mill was up to the task.

The evening really got underway when Preston's Failsafe hit the stage. It really is a shame Failsafe don't get more recognition as they're by far one of the best bands on the current UK 'Alternative scene'.

If just one new fan was won tonight, then it was a job well done and with a performance like this that was very likely to have happened. With a new album (finally!) coming soon, expect to be hearing plenty more from these Northern lads.

Playing to a room with little more than 30 people in is never an easy task, but when you appear to enjoy your music as much as My Awesome Compilation do, it all becomes a little easier.

That said, their set was, in my opinion, lacking something. It was still very entertaining, playing through older fan favourites such As Always and Set to Go, but a set including a lot of new material can always be risky.

I felt there was a bite missing from the MAC chomp, which may have been, oddly, their near-parody track Let's All Have a Disco –– now dismissed by the band as 'a joke'.

Despite this, it usually plays well live and was to me notably missing. Of the new material, though, standout tracks were new single Ghosts on the Underground and the impressive The Theatre Room, both available on the new album Frontiers.

Unfortunately, I felt both top acts were limited by their rather short set times (30 minutes each –– the same as both support bands) which restricted the opportunity to shine on the small local stage.

Yes, it's good to promote local bands but when more established names are booked maybe the times should be distributed better? All in all though, another good reason to pop down to the self proclaimed 'Country's Most Important Venue' and witness some top British talent.

Mark Fell