In the week that Liverpool was bestowed the title of City of Music, in a quiet Sunday afternoon corner in Parr Street’s Studio 2, the music was all that mattered.

Once a month Liverpool’s once Lord Mayor and hard working councillor and Consort, Gary Millar and Steve Macfarlane host the type of show that would be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the country, the type of homely appreciation of music that brings a Sunday to a natural end and filled with voices that are beyond the expectation of delivery. It is an afternoon where the day is given a sense of togetherness, where that appreciation can be set free under the piano commands of Billy Hoi and the vocal strength and haunting timbre of Mr. Steve Macfarlane and guests.

Their Parr Street Christmas offering is no different but it certainly harnesses the raw power of music that UNESCO must have witnessed to present the city with, the packed but comfortable room filled with jumpers of the seasonal nature, the taste of the hectic days ahead swept away for three hours and the imparting of gifts in the form of poems or beautifully sung songs and of course the odd bad pun which always raises a laugh.

The family you choose to be around can be just as heartening as those that you are born or married into, the trick is perhaps making time for both but also being able to have your heart swept away under the guise of a great afternoon of entertainment and one that doesn’t end in a fight over the last roast potato.

Steve Macfarlane, Billy Hoi and Gary Millar pulled out all the stops this Christmas as they welcomed audiences to enjoy the poetry of the Huyton Poet-Ian Kenyon, Pat Fearon and Mr. Peter Grant and the exceptional musical talent and serene voices of John and Fiona Drysdale, the exceptional Susan Hedges and The Knight and Days.

None of this though would matter if not for Billy Hoi and Steve Macfarlane playing songs throughout the afternoon, the binding glue that makes the Studio 2 Sunday afternoon such a joy to be at and as they played songs such as The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire), the faithful and the new comers were given the perfect send off to a very beautiful year, sweet and direct, Sunday afternoons were made for this.

Ian D. Hall