Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

If an E.P. or album can whet the appetite of seeing a group perform for the first time, then Me and Deboe’s fantastic self-titled recording released earlier in the year has had the same effect of being shown the menu of a five star restaurant which serves the finest food anywhere in the world and knowing you can eat there for free with a gift voucher but noticing you have to wait the best part of fifty years before you get even pick up a fork and smell the tantalising aroma.

All good things come to those who wait and as the afternoon in the Bluecoat Gardens was coming to an end, the final session, the absolute crowning glory hosted by Liverpool Acoustic on a superb day of music was the sight of Mercy Elise and Sarah Deboe performing under the green canvas shelter and an audience completely absorbed by the sound and sight of these two very brilliant performers.

There are many reasons to fall for a group; there are lots of explanations available for why a singer/duo/band can fill your heart with such passion that the music just inflames something deep within you. As the music from Me and Deboe seemed to carry past the walls that surround the Bluecoat and its history and out beyond towards Sefton Park, the Cheshire duo showed those attending their portion of the afternoon that to fall for a band is easy, to hold the attention to the point where a pin can drop and be heard in a bustling music filled city centre, is akin to the exhilaration you would feel when completing a long held ambition and then letting the moment sink in to your soul.

The duo complement each other so well memories of Simon and Garfunkel at their most gracious rise to the forefront of the mind and by starting with a new track, the aptly titled Forward, both Sarah and Mercy showed that they have a great future infront of them. The splendid guitar work, impressing it seemed all who had sat throughout the afternoon, were also bowled over by the captivating vocals on songs such as Just Go, The Frustration Song, the excellent Ten Toes and the cerebral beauty of Mother Shipton and to be fair who could in the end blame them for falling head over heels with this tremendous pair.

Music is quite rightly all over Liverpool, not just during The Liverpool International Music Week but all year round, however for a moment in time, music belonged solely to Me and Deboe at The Bluecoat.

Ian D. Hall