Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are people under a certain age that wouldn’t be aware of the lyrical prowess of those that lived on the musical hall stage. Those seemingly immortal beings who could somehow rattle out a story with an accompanying piano and a small cigarette wistfully burning away inside its porcelain holder, seem at times, to be Gods who belong to a different age. In the modern day there is no need for the smoke, for the exuberant glint of porcelain and the outlandish lyric once favoured by the likes of Noel Coward…

However, there is always room for the theatrical, for a band to put a smile on the face of all in the audience with the Jazz lyric and favoured note from a beautifully droll saxophone or well strung cello, for if there isn’t then life, already too serious and at time so beige it makes brown jealous, just may as well become one in which we sit down and take stock of how many beans are left in the pot.

Beige though doesn’t get a look in when The Good Host are on stage. Even with a couple of members missing on the night, the sound and vocal dexterity in which the band produce is one that lights up the face and cheers the soul. The allusion to the likes of Noel Coward is not lost upon the crowd inside Studio 2. There is no formality, no dinner suits, no air of false supremacy and verbal sovereignty though, what the audience receives is a great set of songs with the theatrical, melodramatic voice and beguiling music in tracks such as The Sun, The Age of The Eye, the whimsical The Barley Mow, the tremendous Puppeteer and Same Old Song were greeted, quite rightly, with applause and nodded approval.    

Superb, stylish and complete, a testament to the beauty of music when played with generosity and smart, tasteful chic, the only thing missing from The Good Host’s set was the thought of more songs in which to delve into; a real January treat.

Ian D. Hall