Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

For a woman who has been performing for a little over 12 months, SheBeat catches audiences completely unaware, she sneaks up on them with arms outstretched and then takes her chosen audience on a journey that will stay with them for a long, long time.

The Bluecoat is a fascinating building; its history seems to seep out of every stone and edifice that makes the structure a must see, to wallow in its garden and sit and listen to the world and its joys, groans and ideas. With songs that showed great depth of character and an interesting take on life, SheBeat made sure that what she bought to the table would be enjoyed and chewed over as much as anybody else over the International Music Week Festival and rightly so.

SheBeat has cut her musical teeth performing in places such as Ian Prowse’s Monday Night Club and now infront of an audience which was chilled, near serene like, she took her guitar in hand and the audience by the heart through tracks such as Mine, Won’t Be The Same, the fantastic Supermoon Lover, Impossible and the outstanding Freaky Crazy.

With any act performing in Liverpool this week, there is always an homage to The Beatles and whilst in some acts, the dedication and respect maybe well placed, sometimes it can feel as if the song they choose to perform to the audience is forced as if they know they want to do it but there is no real heart to the sentiment, in SheBeat’s almost wonderfully expressive version of She Loves You, this was a cover that was played with the right level of admiration in her voice. Alongside her own very cool songs and compositions, to take on a much loved early classic by the Liverpool foursome was worthy and marvellous.

SheBeat might have only been performing for a year but what she gave to the audience who came along to hear music promoted by Liverpool Acoustic at The Bluecoat will surely garner more interest in her music in the future.

Ian D. Hall