Gold Jacks, Liverpool Calling. 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
When Manchester based band Gold Jacks performed at Liverpool Calling in 2014 the result was a scene of effortless joy. The no nonsense approach thrilled the crowd and the day took on extra resonance.
Fast Forward a year, take the music for a lengthy drive through the meandering countryside and urban conurbation that sits the Western side of the Pennines and the result has shifted, it has moved up a gear and the effortless joy has now become the true feeling of power held aloft for all to see. The joy is still there in abundance but the magnitude of the music has moved along a notch and the music fan who made their way to Liverpool Calling in time for their performance would have been heartened by the new urgency to their collective sound.
There may be a natural tendency for the rivalry between the music of Liverpool and Manchester to get somewhat overheated at times, the animosity of age and the stretch of land between the two former big cities of Lancashire serving as the battleground between 60s mojo and the start of the music revolution and the 90s so called Cool Britannia and Manchester sound that dominated for a short stretch of time.
What Gold Jacks do so well is to typify both eras and both dynamics with ease, the easy going riff and the moody cool all rolled up in a single wall of sound. It is a wall that gets reinforced and more resilient each time they come to the natural home of British culture and the appreciation from the Liverpool crowd is absolute.
With a selection of songs that could act as a battering ram against the hardiest of storm gates, Gold Jacks took the crowd through their paces and gave the biggest indication yet of what is too come should the Gods look down with favour.
Tracks such as On Your Heels, One Kinda Woman, Dying Sky, the beautiful Count The Rain, the new forthcoming single Take That Back and Cold Heart Shakes hammered through the cold breeze that encroached through the grounds of St. Luke’s and forced it into near submission, the crowd not just appreciative but full of the smiles that easy joy reflects, it was a smile that could have been dedicated to harmony of spirit as much as anything.
A welcome return to the Liverpool area for Gold Jacks, a band that really does need to come to the city by the Mersey more often!
Gold Jacks launch their new single at the Deaf Institute in Manchester on August 8th.
Ian D. Hall