Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Kings Heath may not be a name that immediately conjures up the image of villages in the Birmingham area to have been the start of a flourishing and beautiful career, indeed perhaps outside of the second city itself, the name may only barely touch the conscious of those who remember Gardener’s World which was filmed on one of its adjacent greens and to those whose musical appreciation is filled with the idea that the local bars and clubs have been a stepping stone to great things for some.
Nestled in the now seemingly gentrified area, the odd memory lurking of Preedy’s, of South Birmingham’s premier alternative café and nights on the town watching bands make their mark lives the history of the woman who was to become a global sensation, a poster girl for B.B.C. drama and the wonderful shock value as one of the faces of the Punk crescendo that hit the streets of the city; for Toyah Willcox there was never surely any doubt that she would become one of the biggest names of the 1980s, an honour that was always going to bestowed on someone who managed superbly to annoy Margaret Thatcher with a series of alarm clocks.
To find the poster girl for the Punk revolution inside the exquisite St. George’s Hall was a moment of serenity, of dichotomy worth preserving forever and one that filled the rain soaked evening of Liverpool with a kind of brimming hope, that eventually all roads lead to glory if lived with colourful intentions and whilst the night was not one of glorious electric anthems and the splurge of depth perhaps associated with the name, in a superb acoustic set that name transcended across the decades and the voice sang loud and true.
Spliced between the odd explanation, the unexpected projected picture and the recall of what true Punk meant, the attitude of sincerity and beaming smile took the audience down a road of cool and the beautiful as songs such as Good Morning Universe, Be Proud, Be Loud, Be Heard, Dawn Chorus, It’s A Mystery, Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell, Guns and Roses’ Sweet Child of Mine, Danced and I Want To Be Free filled the opulent cavernous space with distinction and simple effective charm.
There is nothing like seeing a female warrior on stage, a heroine to many performing with such vigorous intent that in the end all that is needed is to remember that Punk stood for something very classy, the opportunity to be unique and be given a chance, in the bland world that we seem to be steaming towards, that lesson is always to be heeded; Toyah Willcox, whether in full electric circus or in the ample arms of an acoustic set, holds the audience to account on such things.
A tremendous evening of enraptured songs!
Ian D. Hall