Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The last night of the tour is always a reason to celebrate. For the fans it can be a vindication that their band, in some cases their whole reason for being, has proved yet again just how important their music is and that the country shares their love for certain songs. For the band, for the artists, it’s a chance to breathe for a while before the circus starts again, to perhaps sample a semblance of normal life once more with family and friends, and a glass of champagne supplied by the support never goes a miss.
When that last night coincides with performing in your home town, the evening can turn out to be a bit of a party, the atmosphere changes and the guard comes down slightly, the performance, the spectacle and the charge changes tack and the smiles become even more pronounced; after all, there is nothing like playing infront of a home crowd who love you.
For The Christians, the Philharmonic Hall represents some of their finest hours infront of a Liverpool audience, the resonance and the expectation all merging, moulding and blurring into one huge night of music which is not only beautiful but swayed with temptation and the playful glint in the self-effacing eye of Garry Christian.
The band stand aloft in Liverpool purely because the music hits home every time they perform, it can hit home with a sense of love that is undeniable, the sense of duty to remind other venues in other cities just exactly what Liverpool brought to the world and the sense of a lyric that somehow even after 30 years still finds a way to worm its way into your heart and double your efforts to make sure that social ills are eradicated forever.
Opening their set with the songs Born Again and Perfect Moment, The Christians got into the groove early and with Garry Christian looking smooth and in a dry sense of humour mood, tracks such as the gracefully played Father, the mega Forgotten Town, Ideal World, the ghost in the room and the spectre that still shames society in Hooverville and Harvest For The World were all allowed to be sang with honest endeavour and the moving thought of playing as free as the music can ever take you.
There are homecomings and then there are champagne moments, for The Christians it is only right they both collide with a smile broader than the head of the River Mersey; an excellent night of music and as ever The Christians know the true value of their hometown fans.
The Christians perform at The Atkinson in Southport on February 6th 2016.
Ian D. Hall