The Last Fakers at The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The International Pop Overthrow is one of those occasions in the Liverpool music calendar where to just wander into The Cavern Club and take in some music for a short while is to be expected and roundly welcomed. The chance should you feel inclined to come off the street after a busy day of work or even the playful art of shopping in your attempt to make the day go past and watch perhaps half an hour of music before making your way home.

Of course once inside, the chances are that although you strolled in with purpose in daylight, by the time you leave you will have seen more bands than you would be able to count on your left hand and the May night time would have been long established as you struggle with how to explain to your other half where you have been. It is natural to deviate from the day’s path but it does take a very good band playing away in the corner when you sit down to want to make you say to yourself, “oh just one more group then I will face the music.”

In one of the finest bands to come out of the North East for a while, The Last Fakers were on hand to start the love affair off, to give a sterling performance with some outrageously good tracks and even have perhaps arguably one of the best dancers around giving her upmost best on the floor infront of the stage to have the most enjoyable time possible. She was great to watch and raised a smile on the audience’s collective face and The Last Fakers were even better.

With Richard Stout on guitar and vocals hammering out the songs as if taking a lump hammer to a piece of ironwork, the tracks were captured in their entirety as something just very special. The beast of performance was not just down to the vocals, each member captured something that music fans in the North East will surely be as proud of as their shipbuilding tradition and their love of their respective football teams. With Bill Boddy, Leon Chadwick, Paul Story and Anthony Turner all giving so much to the set, which included songs such as Turn It Up, On My Life, the very cool Flower, Can You Hear Me and a scintillating version of the Small Faces track What’cha Gonna Do About It?, too which the late, great Steve Marriott would surely have grinned for the rest of the weekend had he been present to hear it, this was music in which to ensnare a beating heart with.

This performance alone, the sound generated, would be more than enough to find the times of the fastest train up to the North-East, find the venue they are performing in next and camping down on the floor until they arrive to thrill you once more. Great stuff!

Ian D. Hall