The Lancashire Hotpots Xmas Cracker

Formed around four years ago, comedy folk four-piece The Lancashire Hotpots have a modern take on an older tradition. Following in the well trodden footsteps of the likes of Mike Harding, they offer a sideways glance at elements of northern life and popular culture. Debut album Never Mind The Hotpots, released in 2007, considered Chippy Teas and what is and isn't an acceptable alcoholic beverage for a bloke in Lancashire alongside firewalls and sat nav.The follow up, 2008's Pot Sounds, examined Ikea and, seizing the zeitgeist (!), the all conquering success Team GB might enjoy if they introduced beer-drinking to the 2012 Olympics.

Their act relies heavily on a well recognised Lancashire stereotype - and, at times, dialect - but this is in an entirely self-deprecating way that includes rather than excludes foreigners from other parts of the Isles. Friday night chippy tea, for example, is a nationally recognised convention done here with a Lancashire twist - does everyone know that a baby's head is a steak pudding? Though this does rather assume that everyone knows what a steak pudding is in the first place. Anyone who has been in Ikea, however, will recognise the Hotpots' wide eyed wonderment at a store the size of Belgium but without any staff where you have to go to the warehouse to get some shelves yourself. Anyone lucky enough to see their performance at a packed out Avalon stage earlier this summer at Glastonbury will be only too aware that this is comedy that travels remarkably well.

Regular slots on local radio and television have brought a burgeoning local support and tonight's gig appears a mix of loyal fans who have seen them many times before alongside those there for the first time. Flat hats and waistcoats are fancy dress de rigeur amongst the Hotpots cogniscenti, a cogniscenti that ranges from older teens to, well, just older. But it's an enthusiastic audience that need little of front man Bernard Thresher's encouragement to get leathered.

The set includes all the songs you'd want and expect from a Hotpots' gig - 'Bitter, Lager, Cider, Ale and Stout' 'He's Turned Emo' 'I Fear Ikea' and 'Chippy Tea'. The band has an easy rapport with the audience and easily exhort greater responses if they believe the enthusaism not quite enough - 'I was at least 50% more upset than that' remarked Thresher when explaining his wife had run off with his best mate. This 90ish minute set - including a brief tribute to RATM's Killing In The Name - was a brilliant start to the festive season and completely enjoyed by everyone there - they deserve success in their own internet campaign to get them back on at Glastonbury next year.

FUTURE GIGS