John Gibbons, part of Only Child’s live set at The Bluecoat, Liverpool. August 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If ever there is a time in someone’s life in which you can say to someone, “Wow, I am impressed with the dedication to the cause”, then to come on stage and play magnificently just after the heart, brain and soul have been swamped with the overwhelming emotions of becoming a parent for the first time is probably that time.

For Alan O’ Hare, emotions must have been off the scale, not only being a new father but also seeing the bursting pride he holds in his poetic eyes and voice for his band Only Child is enough to make you believe that Humanity really has a chance to rise above its own self- destruct button. In Alan O’ Hare, the class that resides in one of the biggest hearts in Liverpool is only matched by those he surrounds himself with on stage and in the songs he plays, the rallying call of a preacher showing a way forward through the darkness.

With the ever impressive Vanessa Murray on bass, John Gibbons teasing trumpet, Dan Mitton’s drums, Fiona McConnell on flute and the impressive Laura McKinlay playing the violin, her fingers dancing away on the strings as if typing a sonnet at the speed of a cheetah chasing down a gazelle in the Serengeti, joining Mr. O’ Hare on stage inside the Bluecoat, the music flowed like celebratory champagne being toasted upon the arrival of the latest addition to the Liverpool family.

Only Child’s latest album can only be viewed as one of the best of the year so far and with that in mind, it made perfect sense to play songs from the album for an awaiting appreciative audience on an August day in which the music simmered and sizzled despite the lack of seasonal warmth.

Songs such as St. Saviours Square, the superb Green Eyes Singing, the beauty of Gypsy Boy, the warning to the Westminster Empire in Dirty Work and the set closer Before and After took the crowd into the early evening with aplomb. There are guides in life, there are poets, in Alan O’ Hare and Only Child, in one soul two entities exists and the music just sends a shiver down the spine.

Ian D. Hall