John Grant & The Big House

Thursday 19th August 2010, Live at the Static Gallery Liverpool

Set list: You Don't Have to (Pretend to Care), Drug, Sigourney Weaver, When Dreams Go to Die, Marz, It's Easier, Out of Space, Silver Platter Club, Queen of Denmark, Child I Never Was, Paint the Moon, TC and Honeybear, Caramel, Fireflies, Chickenbones.

On a night that only summer in England can offer, the Static Gallery offered refuge from the rain, with a night of music that drew its influences from across the pond and sunnier climes.

Liverpool’s The Big House featuring Candie Payne and Paul Molloy, the ex-Zutons guitarist were the opening act. Playing only their second gig, they seemed a little nervous and slightly unnerved by the subdued nature of the audience; though quiet, they were appreciative of their performance.

As a band they are very much work in progress but there is a potential in their tunes, the highlights so far are ‘Pebble Lane’ and ‘Counting Thunder’, songs that have an Americana feel to them. In fact there is something of Cash and Carter about the pair the way they interact on stage.

The one element that probably needs work is the vocal duties; at times Payne is slightly sidelined, It’s like having a Rolls Royce and only using it for trips to the shops. Though Molloy has a great voice, the band work best when Payne is using her vocal range as the set closer is testimony to.

The quiet audience was a different beast for headliner John Grant, back in Liverpool for a second gig in as many months; it was certainly not a case of familiarity breeding contempt.

Touring the brilliant ‘Queen of Denmark’ album that on tonight’s evidence has been taken to the hearts of all in attendance. He introduced each song to rapturous applause that suggested the audience were not just familiar with his latest offering but the older songs from his Czars days too.

Microphone trouble put paid to the slow building opening song ‘You Don't Have to (Pretend to Care)’. That was to be the only misstep of the night, throughout Grant delivered each song with passion and genuinely touched by the reaction that he received from the crowd. The end of tour fatigue he talked about was certainly not evident here.

There were many highlights ‘When Dreams Go to Die’ is a minor chord wonder about thinking a lover could make him happy. His between song banter was endearing after the aforementioned song he suggested the London Underground as that place 'where dreams go to die'.

The majority of his songs are of a similar reflective nature and written with a 70s American soft rock focus, that in the hands of other artists could come across as bland and anodyne. For Grant the subject matter and the lyrical content steers it safely away from that direction.

He avoided the ‘false encore’ and offered the audience the chance to select the closing numbers. Calls for ‘Chickenbones’ were turned down; saying his accompanying guitarist and him did not have an arrangement for that song. Undeterred the audience willed him to do it acapela, which he did, aided by the percussive handclaps of the audience. This almost raised the roof of the venue.

It would be greedy to expect him back in Liverpool as soon as he returned here tonight but when he does return he has set the bar high with this performance.

Happy Birthday Liverpool

Happy Birthday to my home town - 800 years young today. Today's Liverpool Echo does a good job of encapsulating what it is about the city and what it is like to be from there. Especially evocative is this comment piece.
Proud of a city that has never stood still (Aug 28 2007 Liverpool Echo)

HAPPY 800th birthday, Liverpool! Which means happy birthday to each and every person who is proud to call themselves a Scouser – or proud to live in or around such a remarkable place.

The greeting is not just to those in our midst on this momentous day, but also for those joining us in their thoughts across oceans and continents in tribute to the most global and well-travelled of British communities: one which needs no passport to gain recognition anywhere on earth.

A lot can happen over eight centuries – and it has. Enough to provide a tale of two cities enjoying and enduring both the best and worst of times.

Between 1807 and 1907 Liverpool – per capita of population – was the most influential business centre in the world: the oft-acknowleged second city of the British Empire (with all its imperialistic excesses).

The port handled more than 50% of UK overseas trade. The procession of merchant princes, tireless entrepreneurs, inventors, adventurers, discoverers and innovators who lived, worked or played here, provided the most impressive list of “firsts” ever conjured in a single location.

When the ECHO presented the Capital of Culture judges with a supplement containing a mere 100 reasons why Liverpool should take the 2008 European title on behalf of the nation, chairman Sir Jeremy Isaacs now famously noted: “And, yes, you are the only place that could instantly produce another hundred.”

The more cause and effect there is to life, the more chaos, then the more energy is produced.

We are the city that has never stood still – even during the darkest days of war, or, even later, when a heady cocktail of changing trade practices and political turmoil conspired, during the three decades from 1960 to 1990, to produce the most meteoric plunge imaginable in economic fortunes.

Not even the heyday of The Beatles could fend off the oncoming cloud of record unemployment and industrial unrest.

It was Harold Wilson, MP for Huyton, who won four general elections as Labour leader during those often chaotic years, who said that the greatest qualification for any prime minister was a sense of history.

So it must be in assessing Liverpool’s roller-coaster ride down the centuries.

And the biggest lesson to be learned – whether fighting off invaders, plague or pestilence, or doing battle with zero-economics, bad housing, high unemployment or unjust criticism – is that Liverpudlians always, always fought back.

More to the point, they fought back and won.

And our greatest asset in all of this? The people.

We are chancers: Witness Meccano inventor Frank Hornby, one-time butcher’s assistant, becoming millionaire inventor and businessman.

We are rebels: Witness Robert Morris, son of a tobacco merchant, born in Dale Street, who financed the American civil war, personally giving George Washington a £10,000 loan.

We are comedians: Not for nothing did Ken Dodd break the world non-stop joke- telling record.

And what, as examples, do those three things together tell the world at large?

That we are no-nonsense go-getters who have got where we are today aided by the humour of survival.

The steady river – the greatest single force in the fortunes and lives of Liverpudlians ever since the days when monks founded ye first ferry across ye Mersey – is a physical and inspirational metaphor for Liverpudlian fortitude.

Its tides have been the pulse of Liverpool life; its waters, first clear, then muddied, and now restored, demonstrate like nothing else the cycle of the city’s transition, and its rightful claim to once more be the trans-Atlantic gateway to Britain.

For more than four centuries – half of the time since the original township charter was granted – Liverpool was the place of departure for those seeking a new life in the New World.

Now it is also a city of arrival, a multicultural place of destination.

If our great architecture, including the world’s finest neo-classical civic hall and largest Anglican cathedral, helps form the stage on which we live our lives, it is Liverpudlians themselves who continue to drive the plot.

That has always been the case, as with the pioneering canal, rail and shipping links which were the catalysts to our internationalism and cultural expansion.

In all this, adversity has often been transformed to advantage. Although the docks of old (the first lock-regulated enclosed sea docks in the world), have long emptied of their fleets of many-masted cargo ships, the present freeport containerisation at the Seaforth terminal actually handles more freight than ever before.

There are other positive trends in light industrial and service industries, and a new celebration of the city’s green assets – its parks and gardens and waterfront facilities.

The population decline has been reversed.

Regeneration has provided a renaissance for once-blighted places.

The future generally looks brighter, but, as ever, life is never going to be easy. It wasn't designed to be that way.

Liverpool, now at the epicentre of the second-biggest economic region of the UK, needs to continue to rekindle all those skills which brought about its original prominence.

There is a need to remember and learn from the mistakes as well as the triumphs of the past.

But our 800th birthday should be enjoyed purely in its own right.

A time of thanks, a time to remember our forebears, and a time to ponder and prepare an enduring legacy for our children.

The ECHO remains proud to be at the heart of Liverpool life.

Which is why we sign off our editorial on this most special of days with heartfelt good wishes to all our readers, their families and friends, wherever they may be.

It was 50 years ago today

The most famous club in Liverpool’s history (other than Everton) turned 50 today.The Cavern a club made famous with an association with The Beatles, celebrated an anniversary with a series of events.

It is a club that I have a fondness for and not just because of the links with The Beatles, but it was also a place that I spent some of my formative drinking years.

I remember the first time as an underage 15-year-old setting foot down those winding stairs to the dank atmosphere of The Cavern below – this could have been a disappointment to some – but not for me it was magical.

I can even remember what I drank in those days, it would without doubt have been Cider. (That must be the right of passage, as most underage drinkers start on that before ascending or should that be descending to drinking Lager).

At the time I didn’t realise that it was not the original club, but a carbon copy in roughly the same location on Matthew Street. In a typically short-sighted Liverpool City Council decision it was demolished in the 70s to make way for a ventilation shaft for the underground railway system – that ultimately wasn’t required.

It is a club that I suppose I started a relationship with one of my first girlfriends. It was a place that I lapsed from being a vegetarian after almost twelve months of abstinence. After a particularly inebriated night, the waft of the smell of onions from the botulism-burger van on the Matthew Street was too much of a temptation to overcome.

It was also a place where I ruined a pair of white jeans (I think they were just about fashionable at the time) when I decided to take James’ song Sit Down literally and park my arse on the floor amongst the dregs and slops – and no doubt other detritus that accounted for a night out in the Cavern.

I have taken numerous foreign visitors there who have not failed to fall for the charms of the old place.

Happy birthday and here’s to another 50 years in existence and hopefully I can fulfil one of my long held dreams and actually play a gig there.

Simple Minds - Live at the Liverpool Summer Pops

Two years on from the last triumphant outing at the Summer Pops, Simple Minds came back to the city that is now becoming something of a second home for the band.

Front man Jim Kerr hasn’t learnt his lesson of two years ago. His energy levels may not as great as they where back in the 80s, but his willingness to cover every inch of the stage is still apparent.

Thankfully the stages are a lot smaller these days; otherwise the attendant St Johns ambulance would have been required. “I’m getting too old for this,” Kerr mused as he took a well-earned breather between songs.

Kerr was back home in one of his favourite cities and he is usually afforded the welcome of one of its favourite sons. He ingratiated himself further with the locals by calling the city the home of music and football, though he added playfully that Celtic were better. No doubt a nod to Kerr’s own idol Kenny Dalglish, who was sitting in the front row.

The band had a recently released album to promote and a number of the new tunes were played at the opening tonight. They don’t stray to far from the tried and tested Simple Minds template. Home was the stand out track from Black and White 050505.

It was the classics that the fans had wanted to see and hear and the band didn’t let them down. A ten-minute version of Ghostdancing, mutated into Van Morrison’s Gloria. With Kerr goading the crowd into a call and response of the G-L-O-R-I-A.

The anthemic hits Waterfront, Don’t You Forget About Me, Sanctify Yourself, and Belfast Child written for a vaster arena than this, all sounded perfect in this reduced setting.

The highlight of the night was the encore with the brilliant New Gold Dream putting the talents of the band to good effect. Guitarist Charlie Burchill is often overlooked in the proceedings as goes about his business in the usual manner. Kerr did his best to drag Burchill into the Spotlight at any given opportunity.

The set went over the 11.00pm curfew time but they still managed to include one final classic. They ended with Alive and Kicking and on this evidence the band certainly are.

Lets hope it won't be another two years before we wait for return gig.

The Who - Live at the Liverpool Summer Pops

It had certainly been a long time coming for The Who and their fans. The last time they stepped out in Liverpool was October 1971, at the Liverpool University. Tonight’s performance certainly made up for lost time.

Liverpool’s Summer Pops has put on some great acts down the years and bar a Paul McCartney gig or The Rolling Stones coming to town; this years main act The Who will certainly take some beating for the promoters to top next year.

The touts were out in force – charging £80 a ticket as the queues stretched up the dock road in anticipation of tonight’s gig.

The band haven’t released a record for nigh on twenty-four years, but Townshend and Daltrey have been busying themselves in the run up to this tour, with a new album due for release in September.

The new tunes sounded pretty good - the pick of which was the homage to the 50s Real Good Looking Boy - in which Townshend indulged in a trip down memory lane for his frequent trips across the Irish Sea to visit his extended family in Ireland.

The new tunes were kept to a minimum and they had the good sense to roll out the classics that the partisan crowd had come to expect.

There was something for everyone tonight the Mod classics of Quadraphenia were rolled out. Townshend proclaimed it a work of genius - no one in the big top would argue with tonight.

Townshend’s guitar playing tonight bordered on genius tonight too – with him belying the fact that years of guitar playing has rendered him partially deaf.

My Generation was given an airing, given the age of the band and that famous line surprised me. It is a song that was a trademark of the late and lamented bassist John Entwistle. Though bassist Pino Palladino played it with aplomb - it does not seem the same without the extraordinary presence of the Ox.

They have been through a lot together Daltrey and Townshend, many highs and lows, but on tonight’s evidence there is genuine warmth between the two. The two hours long show in the heat took it out of the two front men. Though the quality of the set never waned throughout and their verve and vigour certainly belied the 60 plus age of the two rock veterans.

Tonight’s gig will live long in the memory and all the classics were played such as: Won't Get Fooled Again, Baba O'Reilly, The Seeker, Behind Blue Eyes, Love Reign O'er Me, Pinball Wizard, and Substitute.

Luckily for some it would be only 24 hours for the wait for the next Liverpool for the second of two nights - Suddenly £80 a ticket is looking awfully cheap.

New Order - Live at the Liverpool Summer Pops

Saturday 8th July 2006

Set List: Love Will Tear Us Apart, Crystal, Regret, Twenty Four Hours, Krafty, Working Overtime, Transmission, Your Silent Face, Waiting For The Sirens' Call, Turn, Bizarre Love Triangle, True Faith, Temptation, The Perfect Kiss, Blue Monday, Ceremony, Shadowplay

They have always been something of a wilfully perverse band but late in the day they are finally playing the game that other careerist bands would take as read.

The addition to the set-list these days sees the inclusion of Joy Division classics. Which given their own body of work, must give them something of a headache in putting together a typical night’s gig.

Typically of the band they open up with the brilliant Love Will Tear Us Apart, a song most bands would save for the encore. In truth though there was probably no better opener for tonight.

There haven’t been many gigs in Liverpool by the band of late, despite professing a love for the city. The inclusion of the seemingly lost to the live arena Joy Division classics evokes the days of the late seventies and the now defunct Eric’s club. The club in which Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Steven Morris as well as many other luminary figures cut their teeth.

You couldn’t get a better opening set of songs at a New Order gig than what they opened with tonight. The afore mentioned Love Will Tear Us Apart as well as Crystal, Regret and Transmission set the scene for what followed.

There was something for in all in the set from all points of the bands career. They didn't just trot out a greatest hits set as a number of songs from the recent albums Get Ready and Waiting For The Sirens' Call all worked well with the older material.

Bernard Sumner even apologised for the rockier nature of the opening numbers from the set and promised more of the dancier numbers from the later in the proceedings.

Bassist Peter Hook was in typically belligerent mood all night as he had a running row with an overly aggressive bouncer at the front of the arena. He prowled the stage with his low-slung bass in his usual manner – he even confessed to playing Bizarre Love Triangle out of tune, but I think the crowd forgave (or weren’t ready to argue). Apart from that blip he was in fine form.

Even Bernard was in reasonably good form, granted he may not have the best of voices but it does a reasonable job and thankfully he kept the yelps and whistles down to a minimum, he even remembered the lyrics to a majority of tunes – which was a bonus.

The set closed with Perfect Kiss mutating into Blue Monday, which prompted everyone in the capacity crowd to jump out of their seats.

There was a richly deserved encore and yet another Joy Division tune on this occasion Shadowplay was given an airing. Though the bands return was delayed for a few moments. Instead of waiting for the sirens’ to call, it was more a call of nature that delayed proceedings with second guitarist Phil Cunningham lost in transit and his plight relayed to the 4000 people in the arena by Sumner – obviously nothing is sacred in this band.

It may not have been a festival, but the settings gave it that feel. New Order are certainly the perfect band for a Saturday night in a big-top, hopefully they will be back in Liverpool sometime in the near future.

Paul McCartney

Liverpool Kings Dock, Sunday 1st June 2003

There is always something special about being on the banks of the River Mersey in the summertime. Especially when an event like this is taking place. The setting sun over the disused docks on the Birkenhead side of the water offers a backdrop that is hard to beat. Even the faint hint of rain is not likely to wash away the atmosphere that had built up in the afternoon preceding the gig.

In front of 35,000 fans from around the world, Macca was coming home – the conclusion of his Back In The World tour.

With no support – who would want that unenviable task. The proceedings started with a dance troop which seemed to go on for an age and just as you beginning to think turn this in, the familiar figure of Paul McCartney appeared on the large screens at the back of the stage, holding that familiar Hofner bass, accompanied by the crashing opening chords of ‘Hello, Goodbye’. Thirteen years on since his last visit, he was indeed back home.

The set list covered all phases of his illustrious 40-year career and was one that owner’s of the Back in The World DVD or CD or visitors to previous concerts would be familiar with, with a few notable additions for the home crowd – ‘Maggie May’ and his first-ever composition ‘I Lost My Little Girl’. With a back catalogue like Paul McCartney’s, the hard part was probably what to leave out.

The classic songs where treated with the respect that they deserve by the fantastic band that McCartney has put together for this our, though with a few embellishments of their own. No more so was this highlighted with the powerhouse drumming of Abe Laboriel during ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ that took a great song to another level.

The set that ran to over three hours had something for everyone and left you not only impressed by the quality of his songwriting, but his stamina too. At 63 years young this was some feat.

The pace at the start of the gig was something else as he rattled through his hits from Wings and The Beatles. As the pace slowed down McCartney turned his thoughts to absent friends. Linda his wife who was up on stage the last time he played here. To John Lennon and George Harrison sadly no longer with us he shared some memories of growing up in Liverpool as well as treating us to a playful tribute to George by playing his classic ‘Something’ on the ukulele.

The band returned and the hits kept on coming. The pyrotechnics on ‘Live and Let Die’ were a particular highlight. This tour contained the most Beatles songs that McCartney has performed live. Some that he had performed live for the first time ever. The time ticked on and the hits kept on coming and the crowd could not have asked for anymore with trusty crowd pleasers such as ‘Let It Be’ and ‘Hey Jude’ being sung with equal gusto to that of the band.

Sadly all good things have to come to end and after a generous encore, in which Paul McCartney clearly emotional at the reception he had received. Summed up his feelings by saying. “To be on the banks of the Mersey with you lot is special. Word’s can’t express how I feel tonight.”

‘Sergeant Pepper/ The End’ closed the night’s proceedings leaving those who witnessed the event traipsing off into the night thoroughly entertained and hoping that McCartney would hold his promise to come back and perform much sooner than the last wait for a hometown gig. On the evidence of tonight’s performance one night wont be enough.