Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is a moment when you are listening to The Bad Shepherds, whether it is on a C.D. or more importantly in the realms of the live performance that you realise just how important the music they have taken hold of actually is. What is more significant, is what they have moulded out of precious material and given new form to, the music remains, the lyrics don’t really change at all and yet somehow they have either given fresh impetuous to the song at hand or given a completely new radical meaning to the track.

For the audience inside the o2 Academy, it was a chance to relive the Juke Box of their youth, the dance of a thousand distilled memories only ever a sweet note from a mandolin away. Yet, that radical meaning was never far from their own thoughts as the opening track, The Sex Pistols classic Anarchy In The U.K.  Whilst American Thrash legends Megadeth may have put their own slant on this track, the feeling of outrage magnified a million times of the angry American rallying against Government, with The Bad Shepherds the mood is darker, the despondency that is masked as apathy simmering under the typical British reserve, just waiting for the right spark to say enough is enough.

Adrian Edmondson, Troy Donockley and Andy Dinan don’t just stop there. The simmering powder keg is felt keenly, even if punctuated with superb moments of laughter and gracious fun, throughout. Whether it is on tracks such as arguably The Stranglers finest track pre 1990 No More Heroes, the dejection of Ian Dury’s What A Waste, Madness’ Our House, the superb XTC track Making Plans For Nigel or The Jam’s timeless Going Underground, the atmosphere is one of great wit, indulgence, sparkling mischief and yet all the while the audience were shown the small seeds of music revolution that leads to the thought that something needs to change.

There was more than a glint of mischief in the eyes of Adrian Edmondson as he went through the set with an ever increasing look of glee and firm belief in the audience’s appreciation. Even the inevitable reference to his culinary skills on Masterchef was dealt with the firm slap of reverse ridicule in which all the crowd revelled in. With both Troy Donockley, who as always more than impressive playing the uilleann pipes and bouzouki, and the wonderful Andy Dinan on fiddle being on the end of a few typical remarks from the former Young One, the longer the evening went on, the more the exceptional humour and music blended together.

In the end, the humour and the music had to give way to the more sombre notion of leaving the Academy behind; however as Mr. Edmondson would have noted, it is not always the venue that make a great night, no matter how important to the city, it is the people that flock there and support live music in all its guises that makes a gig special.

An evening of exceptional music, of the folk/punk thrash mandolin, captured by three men and loved by all.

Ian D. Hall