Liverpool Celebrates is new for 2024, organised by what they describe themselves as “a collective of local event professionals”, showcasing the glorious area around the Pier Head waterfront area with four days of live music, with themed days and acts to reflect. Tomorrow is pop/disco, Sunday tribute acts, and Monday is a family day, but tonight it’s a celebration of acts from the city.
And like anything new that tries to get off the ground in Liverpool, the online dissenters have already had a moan as they see this as a replacement for the old Mathew Street bank holiday event which used to be free of charge. They are obviously not up on the economics of putting on a weekend such as this attracting acts like The Jacksons and Boyzlife. The event obviously has to charge and compared to similar things the ticket prices are not too hefty.
Anyhoo, here we are. Due to it being an afternoon start we are too late for the beginning of the bill which has also been shortened due to the problems caused by the remnants of Storm Lilian.
But luckily for us later arrivals, the sun has well and truly come out by the time we get here to see the last throws of China Crisis, ending with a trio of their hits, ‘Black Man Ray’, ‘Wishful Thinking’ and ‘King In A Catholic Style’. The band seemed to be enjoying it as much as the suitably refreshed crowd, refreshed largely thanks to the rarest of things on these occasions, a reasonably-priced bar with decent drink options (appreciated by everyone except the bloke at the bar who was moaning about the cost; I advised him never to go to a gig at the Co-op Live then).
Space are the next nostalgic cab off the rank, frontman Tommy Scott bounding onto the stage and kicking into single ‘Begin Again‘ and two debut album tracks ‘Money’ and ‘Mr Psycho.’ It is a confident move in front of a festival crowd with quite a short set, but they know they’ve got the bangers in the locker to follow.
They touchingly dedicate ‘Avenging Angels’ to their roadie Jordan, who passed away recently; a deserved roar of applause follows.
“This is our cabaret song” is the introduction to the first of the big hits, ‘The Ballad Of Tom Jones’ on which Scott’s delivery syncs perfectly with the pre-recorded Cerys Matthews’ vocal, ensuring a seamless delivery. Set highlight ‘Me And You Versus The World‘ sees Scott navigate the stage like a Mexican jumping bean, not stopping for a moment, involving their adoring audience from start to finish.
And then, “we can’t play ‘Female’, they won’t let us”. Once again a stage hand is telling a band that they have to cut their set short. Surely in 2024, if that has to happen, then don’t just tell bands this when it’s time to get off when they have obviously still got their biggest hit left to play. Maybe tell them before they start so they can plan accordingly (this is a real annoyance of mine). Luckily for the by now angry, booing crowd, Space plough on and we get the aforementioned ‘Female Of The Species’.
Now I feel I must prove my credentials, my love for The Lightning Seeds recordings is undeniable, their fourth studio album ‘Dizzy Heights‘ would be one of my desert island albums. But in the live arena on the few occasions I have seen them, they’ve never quite recreated the greatness, but as it’s been a fair few years since I last encountered them, then I’m intrigued to see what tonight brings.
It brings nothing but disappointment.
It’s such a frustration that they have such impeccable source material such as the first two tonight, ‘Marvellous’ and ‘Change’, but straight from the off, it all just sounds wrong, whether it’s the vocals or the musical arrangement, nothing sounds anywhere near as coherent as it does on record. Maybe they are too (pardon the pun) perfect to replicate live.
An elongated ‘You Showed Me‘ just drags and by the time ‘Lucky You‘ and ‘The Life Of Riley‘ roll around then I’m off to different parts of the venue to make sure it’s not just a bad sound in one place (it’s not). They end with (sadly, not cut due to time constraints) ‘Three Lions‘, which sounds hopelessly out of context coming a month after the Euros.
Can honestly say that I have hated writing those last few paragraphs about a band I have a genuine fondness for, but onwards…
So to finish, a man who must have one of the greatest career legacies of the 1980s, being the vocalist with a band whose output consisted of just seven faultless singles, then released four of his own as a solo act. And it’s those 11 bangers that make up his whole set tonight.
Just on 9:00 the screen backdrop clicks into life showing the many looks of Holly Johnson (for it is him), before ‘Warriors Of The Wasteland‘ heralds him to the stage.
“Hiya, do you remember this one?”
Solo singles ‘Americanos’, ‘Atomic City’ and ‘Heaven’s Here’ as well as Frankie Goes To Hollywood classic ‘Welcome To The Pleasuredome’ see him make full use of the screen, with captivating, well thought out videos for each.
Backed by an impeccable band who never miss a beat (unlike Holly, who missed the odd line), his voice is enough on it’s own to take the large crowd back to those halcyon days, and he sounds in fine fettle, referencing the new festival vs old festival debate in just one typical HJ quote.
“Mathew Street, my arse.”
We all love to have a musical hill that we would die on, an unpopular opinion that we hold. And mine would be that unfairly maligned ‘Rage Hard’ which is right up there with the more well known Frankie singles (if not better) and he roars through this set highlight this evening.
‘Love Train’ has a cheeriness matched by the accompanying colourful video and “Frankie’s last stand” as he describes it ‘Watching The Wildlife’ sees the buoyant crowd get ready for the victory last lap that they know is on it’s way.
The relentless thumping intro of ‘Relax’ sees Holly bring out his own personal spotlight to shine on himself and the throng and after he bemoans the fact that that song “gets harder to play” due to the energy he expounds singing it, the air raid siren and Ukranian flag backdrop that can only mean the start of the all-time classic, the depressingly relevant ‘Two Tribes‘.
This would usually see the set end, but he has a special fitting tribute for us tonight, a strangely moving rendition of ‘Ferry Cross The Mersey‘.
He ends with the Die Hard of popular music (nothing to do with Xmas but indelibly linked with it), ‘The Power Of Love’, leaving the stage with just one more sentence.
“Don’t you just love Liverpool?”
Well, people do, and the city has done a splendid job tonight on the whole. There will be some minor gripes; people were complaining there were no big screens to catch the action on further back and the bill could have been adjusted to feature some newer acts towards the end, but on the whole, hopefully it will return and become a regular part of the city’s musical calendar.
