Burnley Live Music Festival review by CLIVE LAWRENCE

THE limelight may have been taken by former soap star Michelle Gayle, but it was East Lancashire, not East End, talent that shaped this massive music festival.

Nelson outfit Element were the first to pull the sun-drenched fans to their feet. Despite not playing their brilliant cover of Blur's Song 2, they had stolen the show by their penultimate number Captain Wasp which saw the band harmonising around Jay's mike.

Preceding them were Willard, whose guitar-trashing exploits woke any festival-goers who might have dozed off during their sobering set. Pendle's Cornerstones lived up to their billing as one of the area's finest with Niall McConachie adding electric guitar to his talented vocals.

The afternoon saw a return for Burnley's prodigal son Danny Handley. His acid-jazz collaborations with former Milltowner Barney Williams have been badly missed since their local cult band Cosmos split. Since relocating to Manchester, Danny has built a new outfit and set list, while retaining the group's name.

Despite suffering horrendous sound problems as the heat wreaked havoc with the band's Hammond organ the group showed plenty of promise with their light pop sound.

Boy band OTT and soul singer Michelle Gayle added some real weight to the bill and went down well with the fans. This was just the sort of event that Burnley needed. Let's hope for a repeat performance next year.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.