Michael Bennett, Liverpool Calling 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When the day doesn’t quite start in the way you imagined, confusion can momentarily rein havoc with the idea of pre-conception, it tosses aside what you know and offers instead, a dish that delights the palate further and gives off a glow that resonates against the slate gray sky above that threatens to engulf the point of the day’s existence.

As Michael Bennett takes to the stage of St. Luke’s to open up the third instalment of the excellently held Liverpool Calling, that sense of being offered something new doesn’t just creep upon the audience, it jumps out like a Jack in the Box holding an electric guitar and the monumental game changer that resides behind the smile and the glasses of a man whose days of complete acoustic numbers seem to be behind him, at least for now.

A fan once called Dylan a liar, the papers reported him as being Judas, he was neither of course but the tag stuck for many who believed that selling out was a step too far, a nightmare for the masses which had come to regard him as a saviour of the acoustic sound. In a world away from Liverpool Calling, Michael Bennett might have had the same slight murmuring held up against a sea of change, however to witness such gravity, such guile and over shadowing cool look down from the foot high stage and gave the gathering audience a gaze of absolute assuredness and peace and St Luke’s shuddered under the potential of it all.

Underneath the slate gray sky and the wind pouring in through the windowpane-less arches, Michael Bennett, aided with great charm by Low Winter Sun’s Craig Bayne on bass, gave a new resonance to his performance by turning back the clock to the early days of his career and as the electric guitar wound the clock back, the future of his overwhelming musical ability took hold and the experience was completely gratifying.

Songs such as The Slow Monk, the very excellent Down By The Riverside, the apt Skies Above Us, Soundless Plea and a very determined version of Oasis’ Supersonic filled the air and took on the wind whipping round the iconic venue pound for pound. Whilst the early afternoon’s blustery weather didn’t quite succumb to the pounding beauty, it certainly knew better that to try and take it on without the help of a major storm, and the only storm that was forthcoming was Michael Bennett’s sheer will and return to the spotlight; this was a storm worth every penny to witness.

Michael Bennett hasn’t left the acoustic guitar alone, but his return to the encompassing sound of the electric experience was so well timed and so wonderful to hear, that the senses were in overdrive before the day had truly even got going.

Cool, calm and composed, Michael Bennett is a fresh new breeze again.

Ian D. Hall