Carol Decker at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a temptation to feel sorry for Carol Decker, the lynch pin of the band T’Pau, it is persuasion of ever increasing spirit to find a way to get radio stations to look beyond what she and the band did three decades ago and take a listen to how the sound is to be perceived now. The temptation is there but also is the realisation that Ms. Decker has strength of will on her side and a resolute determination that requires no sympathy, just the ability to listen to someone with the humour firmly still in place and the stage presence to enrich many lives.

Opening for one act is hard enough, however when that act becomes two, when they join forces and give a different avenue of appreciating their work, then for the opening slot, the job at hand becomes that little harder to compete against and yet as the early evening wore on, the stride of Carol Decker and the work of T’Pau was too be plainly heard above the excitement that was evidently growing for Go West and Nik Kershaw. It was a stride that came down with the gentle art of a pair of high heeled shoes kicking against radio stations who can’t see past their own playlists at times and the short but very sweet set was enough to place the 80s where they belonged but bring out the modern tracks in which to base opinion on.

The Huyton born Carol Decker was certainly in her element in front of her natural crowd at the Philharmonic Hall as she and the backing band tore through with elegance the songs Sex Talk, Secret Garden, Read My Mind, Misbehaving, My Valentine, the excellent Heart and Soul and the absolute monster of a hit China In Your Hand with authority and steel but also with one hand firmly on the tiller of offering enjoyment and receiving the same smiles of gratitude aimed back at her.

Whilst music moves on, is it invariably does, perhaps the hardest thing for radio stations to remember that whilst yes they are chasing listeners, they must not forget those that made their station’s names in the first place. Those inside the Philharmonic Hall would surely attest to the fact that some acts deserve more praise than they are getting in the current national media.

Ian D. Hall