Southbound Attic Band at Liverpool Calling, St. Lukes Church. July 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Coming on stage for Liverpool Calling 2014 inside St. Luke’s Church, the two members of the Southbound Attic Band made the self-effacing quip that they were the token oldies on show that day. Whilst it was a joke, what they bought to the event in the under threat Bombed Out Church was nothing short of genuine, panache ridden and on par with anything else played on a hot summer’s day in Liverpool.

For Barry Jones and Ronnie Clark, as with anybody who still offers an audience the most privileged of musical experiences, the song with a story attached to its very heartbeat, age is no barrier; it is just how you relate the story. On a weekend in which it seemed Liverpool was marking out yet another niche in the ability to spin a story out with the arrival of The Giants to the city for a second time, the five musical stories that Mr. Jones and Mr. Clarke regaled the crowd with were amongst some of the finest, funniest and in one particular case, the saddest the audience inside St. Luke’s were likely to hear for months on end.

With songs about sexual frustration, international espionage and love which endures for decades, it was only right that the Southbound Attic Band were included on the bill by the organisers of Liverpool Calling. You certainly don’t get treated enough in life to a song that can make you blush just slightly, that can have you pining for the days of good old fashioned black and white crime capers and then have you shed a tear in fondness as you might find yourself thinking a generation which is now either lost to us or that we are blinded by the idea of the quick romantic fix.

Tracks such as Howling at the Moon, Compromised, the fantastic The Ballad of George and Maude and Last Man Standing offered something to the weary minded and dejected soul in return for half an hour’s solid attention. It was a half hour many in the audience would have arguably gladly given three times over for the peace offered by the two men.

Age is no barrier to being able to tell a good story, only a dull uninterested mind can do that; for the Southbound Attic Band, those words don’t even exist. Huge congratulations to Liverpool Calling for adding these two fine men to the bill.

Ian D. Hall