Mon 12 Nov – The Mighty Funk Collective present:

"Now you do what they told ya!" At midnight last night, on a freezing cold Monday, I was chanting this line to Killing In The Name along with a packed, small, room of people in the fabulous Maze venue in Nottingham. A crowdsurfer whizzed over my head. I'm not making this up.

This was the The Apples live experience, playing their Killing cover version, and it was a bit good. And then the bands' DJ started bringing in a bit of Root Down to the track, and it starting becoming really extraordinary.

Rewind. It all started for me when Craig Charles played Killing on his BBC 6 Music show. I never listen to the show apart from snippets, but this blew me away. And, a couple of days ago, I found out (via last.fm of course) that the band was playing in nearby Notts. So I had to go. I even went alone (only the 2nd time I've ever been to a gig alone, though if anything I should try to do it more), due to nobody I know fancying the whole freezing cold Monday thing.

The last time I went to the Maze was 10 years ago to see Cinerama. A great little venue, well located. I need to go there more.

The DJs were superb. The support act, the Small Town Bullies were great - playing very fast funk including favourites Bring Down the Birds and Melting Pot.

And then The Apples arrived, starting with Attention! (downloadable for free via their website). There's 8, maybe 9 of them, and they love their hats - at least to begin with before the heat started getting to them. They played Killing about midway through the set. Other highlights included a frenetic "Duelling Banjos"-style battle between DJ and brass, and a funk version of a Russian folksong about (appropriately enough) apples.

Unfortunately I had to leave at 12.15 as there was no way I'd have been able to work the following day otherwise. Which makes this review sort of redundant. But maybe one of the guys who stayed to the end can tell me just what I missed.

An incredible gig. The band say they always get a great reception in Notts so will no doubt be back, and I'll be there.