Photo credit:  Trust A Fox

Jonny Brown has been through a pretty rough year - even for his standards. Within eight months, he has reassembled his broken wheel, kickstarted a sold-out grass-roots UK tour, recorded an EP which peaked at Number One in the physical charts, played UK festivals and supported Liam Gallagher before yet again being left with two spokes and a flat tyre.  It has almost become expected that Jonny will make a dynamo out of soul and his incessant punk energy regardless of the shambles of his life.  So welcome to Twisted Wheel Mark...8?

Only real musical genius, like Jimi Hendrix, are allowed to keep reinventing and representing themselves with such a rapid turnaround of members.  Nothing will break these Mancunian songs though - not drugs, mayhem, industry indifference or despair. Twisted Wheel has been a training ground for countless current forces in the northern musical industry:  a prominent festival organiser, most of Cabbage and  Catfish and the Bottlemen started off as an earlier support act for Twisted Wheel.

It's ten years since the band were originally signed to Sony and next year will mark a decade since their eponymous album became the soundtrack to UK northern life. But Mancs know there are other Twisted Wheel songs with a pulsing heart for a city on its knees back then and tonight's set list includes tunes you wouldn't find at any other Twisted Wheel gig.  Gorilla is  a gig/dance club, tucked underneath the railway bridge but tonight it is rammed to overflowing:  550 capacity including a guest list means the band are stressing, the promoter grinning and the manager in hiding.

 Jonny, as his wont, found a musician he loved earlier in the week and gave him an early slot prior to another indie punk band, All The KIng's Men.  The band are one of Manchester's lauded punk bands and have been extremely generous  on many occasions to Jonny through his recent struggles, even going as far as donating their own drummer!  Their set is tight,  melodic, riff-driven.The tone is set with strident chords, belting bridges and a crowd more than ready to celebrate everything great about songs from the gut.

 As 'All The King's Men' leave with a La's derivative 'There she goes again running through my brain', the heritage rock punk references continue with the Stone Roses, Oasis' 'Rock n Roll Star', The Sex Pistols' 'God Save The Queen' with its ever-relevant  feral 'No future for me!'  The hyper DJ Dave Sweetmore announces:  'Manchester, the boys are on! Twisted Wheel are back in town. They're on the way.'  In between the ubiquitous 'Whee - el!  Wheee-el!', James and Led Zeppelin, the band (Harry Levin on bass, Ben - Robbo - Robinson on drums, Ben Warwick on guitar and Jonny leading) jump on into 'Lucy The Castle'.  The lyrics are chanted back.  No intro required as they are thrust into the roar: grannies, mum and dads, urban youths, tattood millennials, pretty girls waving pastel phones, stoic Stone Island-wearing blokes.  'She's a Weapon' gets one big 'Yeahhh!' as Ben and Jon forehead-to-forehead pull chords and riffs over each other.

 'One Night on the Street' finds word-for-word sung back, bodies on shoulders, an ecstatic crowd and Robbo claiming the ground with the toms intro.  In between each song, the inevitable 'Whee-el!' pounds the ears but when 'Rebel', the favourite song from the recent EP 'Jonny Guitar' comes on, a new vibe starts up. An exhalation and blissed out sway with Jonny Brown, singing from a key lower than the bassline.  His voice is showing more flexibility with the years, becoming more painfully expressive. The crowd becomes a big swell of naked torsos as the reverb echoes over them.

 'Strife' is the anthem of northern life. Jonny doesn't need to sing the lyrics anymore ; the crowd express them exactly. Tonight he doesn't even come in til 'potato peeler'.  The increased fervour the crowd feels for these songs proves they're not getting old; just more significant. Jonny winks at Robbo as they pull the ending out. By now, they are drenched with sweat, towelling off a '1,2,2,1' sees them into 'Keep It Up Boy'. Ironically, this is the least likely of the set to do just that but when 'Merry Go Round' , another pre-first album song comes on, the crowd are back. Here, with the staccato bridge and intricate structure you see the elements that make US household hip hop names follow Jonny Brown on Twitter and Spotify. He is a master at song architecture for maximum emotive effect. Thunder of drums. There's a problem with the guitars and sound but Simon Bennett, the long-suffering tour manager/sound engineer/Jonny's old guitar teacher, runs around the stage with wires and replacement guitars.

 Ben, Robbo and Harry build up the audience with an improvised beat and the song finally blasts out with its incendiary crescendo in the last third. This is a conversation of passion. 'Ride'  from the quieter 2nd album follows before the riotous irreverent rebel-shout of Jonny Guitar - opened mouths of delirious joy.  '1,2,3,4!'from Jonny announces the final last bar.  'You Stole The Sun' finds a two-man-deep ten foot wall of torsos on shoulders, ankles in the air, phones on the floor under 480 bodies. Word for word repeated. This is a song not in the brain but in the blood of any Manc.  With its cataclysmic flourish follows three minutes of applause. The rest of the band step back while Jonny picks up an acoustic to chants of 'Bouncing Bomb!  Bouncing Bomb!' No other city would request   The song finds Jonny at his most beautiful, full of bittersweet sadness and that rebel rage:  We won't forget your face, no we won't forget your face. You'll bounce, bounce, bounce and you'll free the damned.'  Manchester is the home of bouncing bombs, resistance and remembrance.

 Jonny Brown can make Twisted Wheel whatever he likes but the songs' independent lives are proving him to be its folk hero.  'Double Yellow Lines' missed the first album but not Manchester's ears to which it belongs forever. Jonny Brown is an observant and reflective poet and it is alarming to realise he wrote this at 21 years old, how he can pack so much soul in two words.  'You killed the man on the wrong side of town'.

 The last three songs are furious howls of melodic resistance: 'Oh What Have You Done?' is seamless soul punk while 'Bad Candy' does dissolve a bit due to the continuing dilemma with guitars and wires.

 The final 'We Are Us' is a testament to the new line-up. In synch, robust and real, rocking northern grit and once again, Jonny's at the wheel.