Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

For anybody who was at Eric’s in Liverpool when Hue and Cry, the brothers Greg and Pat Kane, in May 2012 when the music they performed was so serene, so brimming with the bounty of many years as being one of the great bands to emerge from the late 80s that if the world had ended somehow in a hail of cosmic dust, nobody pretty much would have minded. Now to witness their set at the Philharmonic Hall would have just about having any audience member packing their bags and asking their own personal deity which way they should be heading.

Whereas the excellent night at Eric’s was one of strident confidence, an unbelievable conviction in their superb music as they performed tracks from their then new album Hot Wire, the set they performed at The Liverpool Philharmonic 18 months later was one of astounding beauty as they played several tracks from their distinguished career, plus a couple of rather impressive covers, to a crowd that lapped up every note in the acoustic interlude between The Christians and Go West.

There may have been many in the audience at The Philharmonic who would never had heard the Kane brothers perform an acoustic set, however the result to their ears would have been the entrance fee alone, even Pat Kane seemed astonished just how good the sound inside the venue was and he joked that next time there would be even less amplification on stage with them.

Starting off with the classic Labour of Love, the audience could have been forgiven for being transfixed by the pair as the music carried in waves over everybody, crashing, building; rising and each note the crest of that wave. With tracks such as Violently, Ordinary Angel, The magnificent Looking For Linda and I refuse being part of the set, the two musicians could not put a foot wrong in the eyes of their fans, nor those that had come to be swept off their feet by Go West and Garry Christian.

It was though the way that the brothers performed Kate Bush’s haunting track The Man with The Child in His Eyes and the late Michael Marra’s Mother Glasgow that captured the final part of the audience’s heart. With the Scottish city hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2014, this song, as Pat Kane suggested, should be the one that carries the sporting world forward as they emulate the success of London in 2012. A tremendous song captured with absolute style by Pat and Greg Kane.

This may have been an acoustic interlude between the electric sets but Hue and Cry, Pat and Greg Kane, proved as always more than able to give the audience a fantastic night out.

Ian D. Hall