For the second time this year, many people across Liverpool and beyond have thrown their weight behind something extraordinary in aid of the chosen charities for the Lord Mayor of Liverpool’s 2013-14 charity fundraiser.

Following on from the magnificent The Battle of The Atlantic C.D., the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Mr. Gary Millar, and a vast array of musicians and producers have bought out a Christmas album, which not only tugs at the heart strings wonderfully but also reproduces a real meaning of the season, not one of vast nameless companies making unfathomable profit in which to allegedly put into off shore accounts, but one of hope and feeling for everyone we come across.

Voices of Angels, Songs For Christmas brings together the melodic and rather soothing tones of Gary Millar as he introduces the essence of the album and with help from the likes of the great Pacific Swing on the superb Silent Night, Springwood Heath Primary School’s fetching rendition of Mele Kalikmaka, The Mersey Voices and their version of In the Bleak Midwinter and the Liverpool Welsh Choral and Stephen Hargreaves’ wonderful flourish and send-off of We Wish You A Merry Christmas, shows exactly what can be done with patience, understanding and fortitude.

Something of this type of generous nature, the way all involved have come together to produce such an album and the importance it highlights throughout the city is not to be rated. That is not the point of everything in life, in this case, it is what it offers the city and its people and the hope it can offer to many at a time when the marginalised are getting an even rougher deal than at any time since the Great Depression, the less affluent members of society bearing an even greater burden than before and even if one extra person purchases the album and the great work inside then that is surely the best type of rating available.

Voices of Angels, Songs For Christmas sees many people come together and give their time freely in something very worthwhile, a set of great causes which will undoubtedly benefit from the input of Steve and Viv Wright, The Lord Mayor of Liverpool and his consort, the ever bubbly Steve Macfarlane and a whole host of singers, musicians. Well worth every penny.

Ian D. Hall