Ben Higgs at Zanzibar, February 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Watching the impressive Ben Higgs on stage is like witnessing the eclipse of the sun. You are aware of the potential that comes with the awe inspiring, you may have read accounts of it happening and taken in videos and short clips of the event, but it doesn’t prepare you for the sheer spectacle of strength that unfolds before you.

Valentine’s Day, a day for lovers set down with the aid of the mass market of cringe worthy cards, declarations of unyielding affection and the opening of presents in the name of a saint who didn’t exactly have good press when he was alive, yet on the stage in Zanzibar, the eclipse of the sun started hours after the golden orb had descended over the skyline of the Mersey and raced towards Manhattan and Mumbai and the true meaning of finding love began.

Watching in the flesh a musician give his voice box a battering and yet singing as if it was being delivered by an angel with the thought of lust and enviable musical thirst stretching his lungs is to feel unashamed desire to hear more, to be placed into the path of the sun and the moon and with boldness of spirit embrace both for the majesty they are.

Ben Higgs opened up the evening with the song Temporary High, and the controlled authority he placed from the microphone into the gathering audience’s hearts would have startled a rampaging lion into running back through the African plains and finding its mother to nestle under her fur in agitated distress. From there the Zanzibar crowds were hooked and with songs such as Dawn By The River, Forget Him, You’re With Me Now, Dream Girl and Underground being played, that hook became arguably the start of a wonderful fixation.

The Sun may soon get over being placed into the Moon’s shadow, such celestial bodies have no time for petty jealousy, but some eclipses stay with you; some performances continue their influence over the mind long after the pillow has felt the musical pulse still going through the brain. For Ben Higgs, that controlled emotion, a voice that booms loud, proud and with the gentleness of a mewing kitten, authority of spirit is one that even the Sun might baulk at taking on in a pound for pound fight.

Ian D. Hall