ONE of the gigs of the year so far is being staged this weekend at Barrow Underground Music Society.

A Certain Ratio are out and about celebrating their 40th anniversary and bring their superbly stirring, danceable mix of funk, jazz, electronics, and deftly created shoe shuffling beats to the Carlisle Street venue tomorrow night.

This year ACR mark their four decades of music making putting out a new box set: acr:box, out on Mute on May 3, on vinyl, CD and digital.

Acr:box is launched with a new acoustic version of Won’t Stop Loving You (aka The Big E) titled W.S.L.U., a recent collaboration with Parent’s Sarah Brandwood-Spencer (string arrangement) and Jason Brown (additional guitars).

Following on from 2018’s compilation, acr:set, the box showcases the diversity of the singles, B-sides and alternative versions of tracks that A Certain Ratio have released, but without repeating tracks recently made available.

Also on Saturday's BUMS bill is experimental multi-instrumentalist Eric Random, who released three albums and several singles between 1980 and 1987, tracing a fascinating post-punk arc from art-bruit to esoteric jazz and funk, and later exploring non-Western idioms with his group The Bedlamites.

Alongside his solo work, Eric struck up enduring associations with Buzzcock Pete Shelley, Velvets femme fatale Nico and (most notably) Sheffield avant-gardists Cabaret Voltaire, with whom much of his early material bears comparison.

DJ support for the momentous gig comes from Mancunian, Jason Boardman, co-owner (alongside Moonboots) of Aficianado Records and DJ Gripper, mixing up all things Balearic, electronic new, eclectic and classic.