The N = Z nucleus70Br has been investigated using a variety of reactions, beam energies and experimental techniques. A rather complete decay scheme has emerged, with low‐lying configurations of fp‐shell parentage based on the J = 0 groundstate and g‐shell parentage based on the J = 9 &bgr;‐decaying isomer, which is placed at 2293 keV. Comparison with other odd‐odd nuclei shows a surprisingly low‐level density in the first MeV of excitation energy. © 2003 American Institute of Physics