Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
For many, Richard Thompson is the voice of the bereft and the forgotten, the loud speaker against injustice and arguably the British Folk equivalent of Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. It is easy to see why when he performs in such determined spirit and absolute certainty of belief in front of a Liverpool audience that hung upon every one of his words as if following a gospel sermon and to whom as the night finished with the pulse of a musical manifesto from his long and outstanding career still ringing in the ears, rose as one to give a standing ovation that was clear, concise and rampant with pleasure.
The Liverpool Philharmonic Hall is no stranger to such outpourings of spontaneous outpourings of such devotion but there was something in the very act of release of this applause for Richard Thompson, in the manner that the act was employed that brought a sizeable lump to the throat and the understanding that one of Britain’s premier Folk/Rock heroes had just given the audience a master class in performance.
Opening the evening with the song That’s Enough, performed with the superb support act The Rails, Richard Thompson looked the Liverpool audience in the eye and arguably knew that this was a crowd who would follow him to the ends of the earth as they sought the same things in life as him, a kind of equality to be rubbed stamped through the measured and carefully considered lyrics and the fascination with a guitar that could almost do anything it pleased on the night.
With songs such as All Buttoned Up, Broken Doll, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning, the appropriate and very generous Guitar Heroes, the passion behind I’ll Never Give Up and the main set closer of If Love Whispers Your Name all being played grace, style and a full on set kick at those in society to whom such words are wasted as their ignorance becomes more deafening and shamefully defining, this hero to many and to the whole of the Philharmonic Audience it seemed, was simply on the very finest of form and the unseen smiles as he bared down on his guitar and with the sound of a firm loving beat playing around him, was enough to capture love in its purest form.
Watching Richard Thompson perform in the 21st Century is one of the very few regrets in life, that you may have missed out on one of the most iconic and talented men in his early years and seen just how much life can install a sense of the cool from the very beginning, a sheer joy and a musician of absolute quality, The Philharmonic Hall certainly knows when it is blessed.
Ian D. Hall