FORMING M People was not a revolutionary plan on, behalf of Manchester DJ Mike Pickering. Take a sharp knowledge of how dance floor records work add a few talented, preferably photogenic friends and make a killing.

It is a simple plan, but there is still a long walk between inventing a dance floor sensation and selling it to the world.

More than one DJ has failed in an attempt to re-package contemporary club sounds with an eye to the lucrative adult CD market. The blend that Pickering and M People achieve, giving vocal lead garage a distinctly British feel while maintaining its gospel uplift, is obviously much easier to describe than to achieve.

Although in concert there are 11 M People, no amount of exuberant drum breaks or saxophone solos has anything like the impact of vocalist Heather Small. Small's voice has proved to be the key to the band's success. While the last 10 years or so have produced any number of female vocalists who can hit the high notes with soul and style, Small has something else going on.

Beneath the slinky virtuosity, she exhibits on songs like Walk Away, or Sight for Sore Eves, there is an iron hardness to her voice. She is certainly prepared to sing sweetly when the occasion demands. It is however the raw gritty quality with which the tempers the syrup that gives the band's music an instantly recognisable stamp.

It is due in no small part to the vocalist's input that the band never quite sound like a dry meeting of state of the art sequencers, keyboards and marketing plans. Though the concert is clearly planned with more cunning than passion, M People live remains a significantly less cynical experience than their recordings might have suggested.