a lively Hayseed Dixie close the show at Darwen Music Live

This Blackburn with Darwen Council run event is now in its 11th year. The Council has a history of putting on free music and cultural events, notably the now defunct Arts In The Park (AITP), an annual 3 dayer that drew bands such as The Proclaimers, The Lightning Seeds, Wonderstuff, The Undertones, Liberty X and The Cheeky Girls as well as The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to the borough for free parks based concerts.

Darwen live has only partially filled the gap left by AITP. Indeed, Darwen Live is more like two free festivals in one. The mainstage concentrates on covers bands, there to 'sing one we know'. Over 6 other venues, however, local bands get to play there own stuff, often to the biggest crowds they will have played in front of.

Opening up on the mainstage was Manalishi. All the members of the band have played oodles of times live in this guise and other assorted bands. Their musicianship cant be questioned. But they are a band playing soft rock covers and it's difficult to see past that.

Over in Frankys, a local music pub, a decent acoustic set by Jamie Gallagher is followed by local band Dirty Hands. Formed less than a year ago, it was clear the lads were nervous, and, as it turned out, playing their biggest gig to date - it's an undoubted step up from playing for your mates to playing in front of 150 strangers. A standard 2 guitars, 1 drummer, 1 singer fourpiece, the band played a set of their own material. The King Blues esque 'These Streets' soon got the crown on their side and the band grew into the gig - bass lines becoming thumpier, backing vocals more assertive, lead singer more dancey. The band will grow in confidence as they play more together - and rightly so, they have some excellent original material - including stand out closing track, the Joy Division inspired 'Apocolypse'.

Back on the mainstage, The Chain entertained a growing crowd with their 80's pop covers, and were followed by two more covers bands Cherrybomb and well established local favourites Beathovens.

Over on the Cue Music stage, performance of the day came from local but surely soon to be much bigger band India Mill. The four piece have clearly been playing together a while and are much more than a few mates playing some tunes. They have an excellent set of their music, and play with both aggression and accomplishment. Recent exposure on Channel 4's Unsigned as well as the same Channel's Road to V suggests a bright future for this Indie rock 4 piece.

Closing the mainstage were American band Hayseed Dixie. Their country and bluegrass covers of rock classics such as Motorhead's Ace of Spades, Led Zeppelin's Rock n Roll and AC/DC's Touch Too Much were huge crowd pleasers and the closing Duelling Banjos had the several of the crowd leave dancing with big smiles on their faces.

It would be easy to sneer at this local council run festival. Sure it's no Ashton Gate, but then Darwen isn't Bristol. To many it might seem tacky. But to the several hundred people of all ages who turned out to sing and dance in the sun, to the local bands that got to showcase themselves and their material to a wider audience than they might usually expect, it looked a good day out. And I wouldn't argue with any of them.

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