Why this boy's a big draw . . . I'M going out on a limb with this. As one of the fortunate few who witnessed BDB's eagerly-anticipated 'homecoming' gig, I believe I was given a brief glimpse of what the concept of genius is really all about.

You know what's coming. It could possibly -- just possibly -- be a term that will one-day be ascribed to this Bolton-bred lad: 'BDB -- Genius.'

Hence this clutch of adjectives and other assorted words tossed into the equation: originality, presence, baffling, inspirational, frustrating, mind-blowing, passionate, petulant, awe-inspiring, teasing, frustrating, boring, entertaining, intelligent, funny, perceptive, unpredictable -- would just about sum up British music's man-of-the-moment's performance

The fact is, he spent the best part of three hours tantalising us with what he was really capable of.

He had a good time, which was clear -- a bottle of Jack Daniels and ready supply of cigs were consumed with gusto.

This conspicuous consumption, however, almost lost him his plot. After the early promise of his entrance with a truly brilliant extended version of Fall in a River, there followed a series of other numbers from his Mercury Award-winning album The Hour of the Bewilderbeast.

Then followed a seemingly lengthy period where it didn't look as if he would be able to hold things together.

His lengthy 'rants', although at times funny, got a bit much when all the audience wanted was for him to do his thing.

But when he did, all was forgotten. Our lad does stuff with chords lesser mortals can only dream about; he performed and improvised in a way that made every wasted moment worth enduring. He was having a laugh -- he wound us up -- for brief moments we held him in awe. Ato Erzan