Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Dlugokecki may be a word that looks as if it is designed to trip you up in a big way. Like those playground bullies of your schooldays that hung about near the lockers and stuck their foot out as you passed them and then laughed themselves into apoplexy as you fought to get back up with some semblance of dignity. Thankfully the band that bears the name are nothing of the sort, they are pleasant, self- effacing and with a front man who looks as if he the sweetest guy in the world. The name may be hard to pronounce but the music they play rolls of the tongue like Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier stroking a free kick home with an easy elegance.

The band readily admitted they had travelled all morning from the south coast to make it in time to get to Liverpool as part of the International Pop Overthrow and as they settled themselves on the back stage, whatever anxieties and stresses they were collectively carrying melted away over the course of the half hour they played.

Southampton is not the first name on people’s lips when asked where great bands come from but there was something intriguing, something tremendously worthwhile about making sure you caught the group. Whatever they did would be under watchful eyes, eyes that had witnessed the next great band out of London, The 286, give a stunning performance that set them up to be amongst the darlings of the festival but as the vocalist/guitarist Ben Dlugokecki set to make the audience appreciate their sound, the smiles on the audiences faces grew as they realised that this was something different. Not uber cool, there was already one band that had been on stage to carry that weight and succeed. This was a band that might not quite hit the highest possible line but they will have a lot of fun trying to get there. The music flowed like The Solent into the English Channel, from still waters into something deep and precious.

Tracks such as Putting the Tracks Infront of the Train, You Don’t Know Me, the wonderful Firelighter, the superb song Too Many Borders and the finale All Stations were greeted with enthusiasm and cheerfulness. Some bands are meant to be appreciated just for having made an audience smile, for giving them the sense of real and humanity. Dlugokecki might not win many awards, however good the songs are, but they certainly made a lot of friends to take back down to the other end of the country with.

Very enjoyable.

Ian D. Hall