Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

You can really never have too much of watching a great set of musicians perform on stage, a furtive reminisce of singing along to a set of records as teenager and knowing that surrounding you are 2,000 people in the same building doing exactly the same thing and the realisation as you try to take in all their faces that each one of them is almost deliriously happy.

As part of the very cool package which included The Christians and and Hue and Cry, Go West’s Richard Drummie and Peter Cox thrilled an audience completely with their set and gave those thoughts of being a teenager in the 1980s a helping hand with their playful recollections.

Go West were one of the biggest bands in the 80s, their music infectious, irresistible and one that filtered across the pop genre. In a night of music dedicated to that era in which pop stars really lived up to the moniker and weren’t driven by the self-interest of people making television. Richard Drummie and Peter Cox continued that fine tradition of music that sunk deep into the soul of those that really listened and also had the flavour of the decade that seemed to sparkle with great music that got you up on your feet in appreciation.

Although no one would have said out loud, the only niggling issue on a night in which all three bands performed with due deference to the audience with some fantastic tracks, would have been the shortage of time that all three bands were on stage for, none the least for Go West as headliners on the night. However, that aside, the music that was played was pure, interesting, a hark back to many in the audience younger years and songs such as Don’t Look Down, Black and Gold, a striking intimate version of Call Me and the outstanding We Close Our Eyes all served notice on a current fascination with groups that you can hardly having the staying power 10 years from now, let alone 30.

Peter Cox was in exuberant mood as the sound of many a female audience member swooning was high in the imagination and Richard Drummie once more showed just how under-rated he is as a musician by those that don’t make time for such things.

A great evening’s entertainment at the Liverpool Philharmonic was finished off with a blistering version of Call Me, the juxtaposition of the two versions not being lost on an admiring audience. Each decade has its ups and its down but the 80s really had such a great set of talented musicians filling the charts with some of the catchiest music that sometimes for any crowd, it is perhaps the most enjoyable.

Ian D. Hall