Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It may be the Easter break for many students up and down the country but that doesn’t mean that they either unwind over the spoils of Cadbury wars and gargantuan eggs, nor for the benefit of their own sanity or health hitting every single book for 24 hours a day ready for the impending exams that naturally hove into view once the last wrapper has been dispatched to its fiery hell.

For some, it is the chance to play an extra gig, to play with enthusiasm and give an audience in whatever city they find themselves in a chance to say, “This is why you will miss me for a couple of weeks.” For Alexandra Jayne, the way she lights up a room and plays with stunning conviction, it seems that a couple of weeks is like shoving your soul into a high security jail and then telling it that won’t see the light of day for a year or two whilst tossing down a bumper pack of prison escape film including The Shawshank Redemption.

For those that have got to see first-hand the very obvious talent that lays behind the Staffordshire shell, they will enthuse till the cows decide that home is not just the place in which to munch on grass but also till the moment they find out they can actually work the stereo system and understand the rudiments of the boiling of the kettle. For Alexandra Jayne has the type of voice that at one time would have had commentators suggesting it was like listening to honey settle and inside the Zanzibar Club that voice once more captivated the fans perfectly.

Having recently opened the Hope Project at The Brink, Alexandra Jayne went a stage further and opened the evening for the sensational Emma Stevens at Zanzibar. This is a stage in which recently legends have graced, in which future stars have honed their ideals and for which Alexandra Jayne came of musical age.

The balance kept right as she performed a couple of classic covers, played to her own idyll, including a re-run of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side, which captures the imagination in a way that Lou Reed would surely purr generously over; Alexandra’s ability to change the meaning or the image of a song to something in which the act of transformation is looked upon as an act of gender respect is thrilling and one that deserves praise. Her own work also is taking fans on the journey to fulfilling set also and in tracks such as Better Life, Who I’ve Become, The Water and the excellent Troubadour the thought of Easter eggs would seem like a drab second choice to spending a musical evening with a woman who can smile on stage and have an audience begging to hear more.

Ian D. Hall