Go West at the Floral Pavilions, New Brighton, November 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Go West never have to send out an elaborate invitation for their fans to attend a night of music delight. The word seems to get out, made easier by 21st Century social media, that Peter Cox and Richard Drummie are going back out on the road, that they will be touring their much loved songs and like the proverbial baseball slogan, the audience comes, and the aisles and the spaces provided near the now neglected seats having irresistible dancing and loud appeals for more thrust ever closer to the stage.
Like many groups who found a slice of Time being preserved for them forever in the 1980s, Go West have endured and thrived. The music they offer is infectious and for anybody over a certain age, memories of teenage or early twenties life is a heady reminder of the carefree times they had in a world which was on the verge of tearing itself apart and being overrun by a society that no longer seemed fit for purpose.
To watch Go West though as they performed songs such as Call Me, Faithful, Goodbye Girl, Black and Gold, Man on Fire, a resolute cover of Republica’s brilliant Ready To Go and the cerebral beauty attached to Smoky Robinson’s Tracks Of My Tears, is to witness first-hand the staying power that many acts in the 1980s had and still possess by the bucket load. The range of age that they attract as those who were doubtful teenagers looking for a reason to stay in tune with a world that was fast forgetting them is a truth worth remembering. It is bands such as Go West that allows generations to bond as there is no argument to be had. The music builds bridges, not barriers between those who were there and the children born into it.
With the band dedicating the song Saturday Night to one of their own special heroes Blue Nile, and performing songs such as Don’t Look Down, Still In Love and S.O.S., the night at the Floral Pavilions in New Brighton was heightened and enjoyed by all. The dancing never stopped, the smiles were as bountiful as finding a treasure chest on a desert island and throughout it was possible to see the bond between entertainer and fan being tightened and strengthened.
A very good night in which to embrace the past and go towards whatever the future offers with a spring in the step and a certain glorious whistle blown sweetly between the lips.
Ian D. Hall