Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There has always been so much to like about Paul Heaton, a man who wears his lyrical beauty on his sleeve and who can make a grown man weep with the elegance and sly nod of his words; when you add the delightful voice of Jacqui Abbott, a woman whose own command of the slippery wink worthy English Language is as cunning as her friends and a Liverpool Philharmonic Hall rammed to the point where dancing in the aisles was not only expected but actively encouraged by the words floating with sincerity, then Paul Heaton truly found he had come home.

It takes a truly excellent performance to imagine the crowd of the Philharmonic Hall to be as vocal and as in such a good mood, the gentle retiring nature of the end of days that March provide is soon replaced by exuberance and joy and Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott more than relished in the praise being hurled in theirs, and the band’s direction; for as performances go at the Philharmonic Hall go this was right up there with the very best, this was on par with Roger Hodgson’s thunderstorm or the explosive serenity offered by Richard Marx.

It was not easy to be lost in the melee of smiles, in the word play offered by Paul Heaton or the sweetness and drive of the music that has grabbed the attention of fans for thirty years, not easy being lost perhaps but certainly a huge pleasure as the sweeping gesture of songs such as Wives 1, 2 & 3, Five Get Over Excited, Queen of Soho, Old Red Eyes Is Back, The Horse and Groom, Good As Gold, the chain whipping Happy Hour and Perfect 10 all left their well intentioned mark on the audience; so much so that the normally austere and forbidding boxes that circle the stage were bouncing up and down as if the wooden floor had been replaced by a grinning trampoline.

For thirty years Paul Heaton has been one of the best observers of life in the country, alongside the astute and perceptive Jacqui Abbott, that observance is cast into the realms of celebration and if any gig could prove that then this particular concert was the one.

A gig that offers a perfect ten is rare, in Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott, the Philharmonic Hall had such a couple who could deliver not only the music with textbook precision but the faultless liberation of the soul to enjoy the atmosphere that swam in the ether; utterly divine and tremendously cool.

Ian D. Hall

Jacqui Abbott at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, March 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.