Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The mood is always infectious when certain classic Rock songs make an appearance on the public bar juke box, the anticipation of what track is going to appear next, what standard or anthem will have the crowd singling loudly and what will have the tear of regret and the memory of a particular moment forever seared into the brain. Music arguably has that ability to make the brain remember valuable recollections more so than any other art form and as the crescendo of The Classic Rock Show reached ever higher, as the Philharmonic Hall crowd were swayed and teased with greatness, so the memory of Time was played out to some of the unbeatable guitar riffs and unforgettable lyrics.

Whilst the band had only been in Liverpool as recently as 2015, the Philharmonic Hall audience were certainly in the mood to be taken down memory lane once more and as James Cole, Howie G, Steve Parry, the flamboyant Ricardo Afonso, Karl Penney, Alex Dee, Wayne Banks and the stunning Emily Jollands laid down anthem after stadium filler anthem, the crowd felt the electricity flow through them as if they had just found out what got Thomas Edison so excited as he discarded his manual toothbrush, put out the gas lamps and switched on the lights.

The juke box is King in many bars and the ultimate live juke box is never short of admirers and as songs such as The Eagles’ One of These Nights, Pink Floyd’s Money, E.L.O.’s Mr. Blue Sky, the thunderous Live and Let Die by Wings, Toto’s Rosanna and Meatloaf’s Bat Out Of Hell lit up the evening and made the heart pump faster than if it had spent three hours down at the track trying to keep up with Jessica Ennis as she ran rings around the deflating spirit. The juke box is always King, the power of the drum, the guitar and the keyboard always in tandem, always looking to pierce the heart with a memorable lyric; it is no wonder that The Classic Rock Show always goes down well when they come to Liverpool.

With other standards such as Queen’s The Show Must Go On, Van Halen’s Jump and the mighty and seductive Rihannon by Fleetwood Mac and performed with absolute joy by Emily Jollands all making an appearance, there was not a moment in which the juke box, in which the musicians on stage were not greeted and thanked for bringing the show back to the city stage.

A night of great volume and care for the past, the classic sound of rock never dies when it is the hands of those who love it.

Ian D. Hall