Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 81/2/10Watching the smooth nature of Liverpool’s Cavalry on stage inside St. Luke’s Church it strikes you that life, especially music, is sometimes cruel. In another time, another era of Britain’s music history and only half a life time ago for many in the audience of the bombed out church, Alan Croft, Austin Logan, Steven Taylor, Paul James Jones and Gareth Dawson would have many a label scrapping with each other to have dibs on their precious signatures.
However such things these days are not the be all and end all of a band’s ambition, for watching them on stage gives rise to the future of music in Liverpool. They join an ever growing pool of talent that if Liverpool were to ever demand independence from Westminster, would see the once small fishing port in Western Lancashire the undisputed capital of music anywhere. The United States homes of music, such as Detroit or Nashville would become a faded, almost antiquated memory. It seems only right for the true capital of British culture to have that trademark and for Cavalry to be in the mix.
With clouds beginning to overshadow the natural and somewhat enchanting Progressive look inside St. Luke’s, an eerie calm befell over those in attendance. This was the hush before the storm that the likes of Sundowners, The Mono L.P.’s and of course Space would provide later in the day. The hush of expectation, intrigue and the willing to urge on a group admired by many in the city took on an almost human quality of its own and was intense, creatively enjoyable, but certainly intense.
The resonating sound of the group’s set bounced off every wall, filled every gap and had feet tapping away on invisible drum pedals throughout. Tracks such a Two Embers, the very cool An Understanding, the quiet majesty of The Earth and the finale of Lament only confirmed what many already know, that Cavalry is not just music but a state of mind in which to unplug from the sometimes dreariness that life throws at you, the banal and unenlightened and revel in some quality music.
On a day in which giants strode about the city, something enormous was happening inside St. Luke’s, change was in the air and Cavalry added greatly to that whiff of revolution.
Ian D. Hall