Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
March may have been blown in the back of the worst set of winter storms in living memory but the thought of sunshine, weather so perfect you could just turn on the radio and dream of Henry Blofeld delivering a perfectly delivered and seamless soliloquy in praise of a six by Curtly Ambrose and strawberries being placed in your mouth by a toga wearing Roman is never too far away. That dream of summer, of the lazy perfect day was bought ever closer by the Leicester band By The Rivers who were support for the legendary Ska band The Selecter on the opening day of March.
The band gave the audience a stunning start to the night. Nile Barrow on lead vocals and guitar, Jordan Birtles on drums, Sam Read on keyboard, Matt Willars on bass, Will Todd on saxophone and Leo May on trumpet raced through their set as if driving a Formula One race car on a straight road and the lights ahead of them placed on green. This was stirring stuff, inspiring to see the genre being respected but also taken to a level befitting the 21st Century.
With tracks such as You Got It Wrong, the superb Run Around, Vulture, the excellent Don’t Say You Love Me and Run Home being played with a youthful vigour, a dynamism that would have outshone Sellafield on a foggy night, By The Rivers showed that no matter your preconceptions about a specific genre, at times they can be taken apart as easily as someone with a wrecking ball can take down a crumbling condemned house.
The legends, the band who made Ska what it was in the U.K., may have been following them but on stage the crowd had arguably witnessed the birth of the new kings of British Reggae in the Liverpool Academy. Even if Reggae wasn’t your thing before the evening started, judging by the reaction of those inside the hall this was a phenomenon waiting to explode. You know when a band have also enjoyed the evening when you see the saxophone player bob and weave like a prize fighter going the distance with Muhammad Ali.
By The Rivers did themselves proud and certainly found a new set of converts in Liverpool. A superb set by the new rulers of British Reggae!
Ian D. Hall