Liverpool Sound and Vision Review 8.5/10

That rare showing of charisma, you either have it or you don’t. If you don’t you can get by being truthful, unabashed or even by smiling, all of these bring out the sunshine in a performer. To have charisma though and to have it so far ingrained into every single member of the band that the sweat pouring off them can be cloned and sold off as new aftershave or perfume, is to have magnetism and every single pair of eyes looking at you as if you were some sort of Demi-God taking a break, well that’s enough to know that the formula is exciting, raw and beautifully wild.

For The Jokers, charisma in the band is alluring but there is also respect from the crowd, deep, honest and as straightforward as the foursome deserve. That much is evident as they take to the stage at the 02 Academy in Liverpool, what others may try to get away with in the art of bluster, The Jokers employ as good old fashioned reliability and as the set bounds with enthusiasm on, there is something else that crawls into the mind of the watching audience, that as their 2013 album suggests, that Rock ‘N’ Roll is indeed alive.

Bass player Phil Hartley is no stranger to making his public fall for his easy charm and music sincerity but watching him away from Space, where he is surely and quite rightly lauded by many as one of the most entertaining around, a new dimension seems to come into play. The natural spotlight bringing out a wild-animal in him, his sheer presence magnified and somehow without warning the bass takes on a persona, sidles up to you in packed bar and whispers words that would make a nun blush on a night out from the convent, but in the less well frocked, just becomes arousing to the point of sharing a taxi home.

When placed alongside Paul Hurst and Wayne Parry, the music not only shares the taxi, but pays for it as well and tips the driver enough to make sure that in the morning, blurry-eyed and smiling like a loon, you don’t even have to hunt for a phone number.

The surprise of the night was in Robin Guy’s appearance on drums. With no rehearsal, with awkwardness attached to someone placing themselves down on the empty stool, thrown completely out of the window, Robin Guy beat the drums into controlled but stunning submission, where even if the cymbal had dared tried to add an extra wallop of imagination into the songs, it would have been spanked, sent to bed and told to think on the error of its ways in showing up an astonishing debut for The Jokers behind the kit.

With songs infiltrating the night air such as Let It Rock, Night Driver, Find My Way Home and the excellent Silver City, the desire to see a full show was the only reasonable conclusion to bring to mind. This truly was Rock and Roll, full on, immediate and blistering, heroes not so much born but moulded out of charisma with honour throughout. Entertaining and sublime, The Jokers are the perfect band to even allow a nun to make a new habit out of.

Ian D. Hall