Inexplicably, differentGear started life in a vat of formaldehyde in the year 1999.

A considerable number of activities were undertaken and interrupted at once since the protagonists could barely make up their mind as if to complete the tasks presented to them or to levigate the bathroom floor instead.

Meanwhile, they built a recording studio in Old Street and made some records in it, all this in the days when you would drive your car to the back yard of a pub in Stratford, part with loads of cash and come back in a week to collect a car boot full of vinyl in black disco bags which you would then sell from the back of the same car to various record shops in central London on sale or return for which you had to come back in a month to collect your cash and see if you had enough left to treat yourself to a tin of anchovies in extra-virgin olive oil.

One of those records was a runaway and everybody loved it and everybody wanted it, so our anti-heroes were very much in demand for a long time to make loads more of those records which of course they did as it was such a fun thing to do and that, in turn, spawned quite a few more runaways.

Then things changed as they do, and some of the people didn't want to have those cumbersome yet beautiful records anymore because you could download the music instead and there certainly was no more need for B-sides so differentGear, under the curse of their own name, did something completely different altogether and made some music for theatre for The Revenger's Tragedy in that ugly, austere, grey, odd, boxy, indeed generally excellent building called The National Theatre.

But now the fun is back; differentGear have got more music and their friends at Crosstownrebels still believe in B-sides so they cut a spanking new slab of black vinyl, although this time in Hackney, which will be played very loudly, through a big loudspeaker, near you, soon.