Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The rich vein of life, the tapestry that weaves its way through the streets, through iconic buildings such as The Bombed out Church of St. Luke’s, the radical nature of two opposing buildings of faith being at opposite ends of one of the most artistic streets in the city and to perhaps the greatest single collection of music venues and theatres anywhere in the country in which thousands of people get to show their devotion to the natural calling of entertainment, continues from one generation to the other.

As the subtly, the musical gift and much loved creative spleen of one hero in a group of like-minded individuals gets passed down to the next, it will come as no surprise to find Mersey Wylie stood on a stage infront of hundreds of people giving an audience, those who actually go to a gig or a night of music to listen with respect in their hearts, several reasons in which to know that music is fluid, ever changing and like the tides on the river that shares her name, prone to turn up great and powerful things as the years pass ever onward.

If Mersey Wylie was at all nervous about her first ever solo performance, letting a crowd take a sneaky look at what lays behind the demure young persona and the aptitude of someone with an excellent voice, then she buried it deep within her, for this was a woman in control of her debut night, not nerves, not the sound of the disingenuous talking as if they had forgotten to put a zip on over their mouths, was going to stop her delivering five songs of incredible quality and depth. Nobody was going to stop reaching into the souls of many and gently plucking at the heart strings and making them understand that her exceptional talent, on show for many years if people had known where to look, was built to last.

With a set of five songs, all original, all written with clarity and purpose, the evening may have been a daunting prospect, but this is Mersey Wylie, a woman who has sang with Dave O’Grady, a woman who has generated great stuff with the likes of Kaya Herstad Craney from Science of the Lamps, this is a woman who just gets what it means to have self-control and the twinkle of a creative soul.

Accompanied by the outrageously good Jack Beacall on keyboards, Mersey Wylie gave the audience a taste of what to expect in the future as she performed Never Mine To Lose, Stand Up, Love Me Right, Let It Go and the fantastic Fighter to a packed out crowd inside the Zanzibar Club.

At the start of the evening, Liverpool legend Pete Wylie exclaimed it was the proudest day of his life introducing his daughter to the stage, for many who had seen this burgeoning talent through her initial forays into the world of music, whether in the privacy of a University studio or in the thoughtful band of singers that provide great harmonies for Science of the Lamps, that pride was equally manifested. For those catching her for the first time, surely they have a new hero in town to watch and enjoy.

Ian D. Hall