Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time is a tremendous healer; it can also be a jailer. It can tie you down and deliver a quick, unexpected slap and shock the system to the point where unless you are willing to change the way you present yourself every now and then, or at least the fundamental part that everyone sees on a daily basis, then Time is quick to stagnate and be repulsed.

To witness a seismic shift in presentation is to fall in love over again. To take stock after the event of seeing Miles Hunt, Erica Nockalls and Dan Donnelly of The Wonder Stuff perform a full acoustic set in the heady and somewhat raucous atmosphere offered by the O2 Academy on Bristol Street and just become immense.

Not that the thought of Miles Hunt being anything other than an immeasurable and consummate should be a startling surprise. The crowd were as vocally as stirring as finding a voucher entitling the holder to send a member of Parliament of their choice to the Tower of London and be thrown in the icy waters of the Thames on New Year’s Day. So the power of one the Midland’s favourite musical sons, coupled with the enormity of Erica Nockalls’ haunting violin and the latest addition to The Wonder Stuff’s fold of Mr Dan Donnelly and his very pleasurable guitar and banjo playing, overshadowed the complex and raging beast that is Machine Head in the next room. It was witnessing Time wilt under the beauty of the performance and bloom in the knowledge that nothing great is ever capable of stagnating.

Although Miles and Erica have performed with scintillating prowess at their own acoustic gigs, this was something new for the Birmingham crowd, this was splendour wrapped up in a trio of musicians who could breathe life into the languishing despairing heart. Time as a jailer must have shrugged its shoulders and realised that it had lost the battle, that it was right to allow the heart to be captured and entranced, not just by the songs that included On The Ropes, Red Berry Joy Town, the spectacular wonderful inclusion of Cartoon Boyfriend, Friendly Company, the exceptional Ruby Horse and Ten Trenches Deep but of the candid talk that often accompanies the main man when in full flow and with a crowd that will actually do the decent thing and listen to him.

Perhaps the most poignant moment of the evening came with a story about American talk show host David Letterman and the sad realisation that music fans have been cheated out of some stunning music that would have no doubt flowed like the River Rae into Cannon Hill Park on a balmy summer’s day with the passing of the great Kirsty MacColl 14 years to the day. It was the look on many a face that told the story and for Miles Hunt, it is a time in which never seems to heal. As Cheap Seats pounced over each member of the crowd like a stealthy but playful tiger seizing upon a ball of wool, memories were plainly visible and the collective sorrow was palpable.

Time never really asks what will become of us, it just asks that we grow and reach the dizzy heights it sets us, for Miles Hunt, Dan Donnelly and Erica Nockalls, those heights were reached long ago, now they set the bar for others to achieve.

A tremendous night of much loved music performed in a glorious vein.

Ian D. Hall