Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Into every I.P.O. must fall a band so insanely catchy, so raucous, so outrageous with their clever lyrics and achingly good music that they make the whole week seem like a dream.

In its thirteenth consecutive year of showcasing some of the finest power pop acts around at The Cavern in Liverpool, perhaps no other band has had such recommendations come before them, of being urged to take in their warped but tremendous songs filled with pathos and excellent humour as much as Colin’s Godson has had thrown their way.

Listening to Colin’s Godson is like listening to the beautiful stirring tones and well produced riffs employed by fellow Glaswegians The Fratellis and mixing them with the very finest surreal humour employed by The Wirral’s Half Man Half Biscuit and then placed into a blender switched to high and topped up with scheming irreverence; it is a combination that is combustible, perhaps contentious but clever and a lot of fun to be in the presence of.

The band really hammered home this musical fact during a rampaging set on the Saturday afternoon of the week long experience of the I.P.O. Fast paced, absorbing, full of cheeky mockery but always on the side of respectability, Colin’s Godson had the crowd in the palm of their hands and it was a sight to realise that no matter how serious life can be, no matter the stares of derision and hate come your way from the swivel headed green eyed monsters, the sound of this band can make you smile harder than the thought of a free holiday and all expenses paid watching members of parliament being harangued.

Songs such as the openers Stadium Rock and Louis Theroux were keenly appreciated and Death Star Ditty, Match.com, The Day I Was Paul McCartney, the fantastic Blackadder Back and Forth You Let Us Down and Beautiful Mediocrity were all worth the adulation that had filtered down from Sauchiehall Street and the sound of Scottish laughter at the absurdity of life was a terrific counterbalance to the worn out seriousness of the past couple of weeks in which has split the U.K.

There are moments in life, some monumental, some that barely register on the scale, that you are glad to be alive to witness such events; seeing Colin’s Godson perform on stage in Liverpool was one of them.

Ian D. Hall