Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It doesn’t have to be big to be clever, it doesn’t require the sense of razzmatazz, the three ringed circus, over blown sense of production or the hype to be the best; all anything needs to be to stick in the mind of the viewer of art, of sport, of life, is to be honest and forgiving, the sense of knowing that the time on stage is the most important feeling and to give it all in the pursuit of natural, beguiling magic.

It was not just a sad day when Jimmy & the Revolvers called time on their flourishing lot, it was as if something had cracked in the Liverpool ethos, that a truly enjoyable and scintillating live sound had been ripped from the culture of the city and leaving a big black hole in its place.

It is always understandable when a band decides they cannot continue, the pressure on young groups these days is enormous, financially they are not backed in the same way that a group in the 70s and 80s would have been, they can also be largely and systematically let down by the very people they seek to entertain, that there has festered, with much distaste a feeling in some quarters that everybody who does something artistic, should do it for free, that the acclaim should be enough. It was not just a sad day when one of the great live bands of Liverpool in the last decade split; it was perhaps an indictment of a system that is rotten.

Sadness does not hold forever, the feeling of emptiness is not, hopefully, a permanent state, and as August 2017 drew itself wearily towards its end, the sense of history, of anniversaries hanging in the air sniffing out reminisce and remembrance, of the true dog days of summer coming round once more; so too did the memory, the live, the kicking, the utterly welcome and dearly beloved, re-emerged for one night only on the stage of Studio 2 and with a bang, with a seismic shunt of the heart strings, the echoes of Jimmy & the Revolvers blasted back into the eardrums and produced one of the nights of Liverpool to attend.

In a glorious and pulsating set, the smiles, the voice, the wonderful sound that had many a heart beating wildly inside venues such as Zanzibar and the unforgettable day inside the bombed out church of St. Luke’s, were to be felt again. Emotions run high in such circumstances and as one of their songs aptly reminds, You Are Not Alone, for this in all senses, epic and performed with passion.

In songs such as Lonely, Everytime, Little Black Book, Weatherman, Sunday Morning and arguably one of the finest covers of The Everly Brothers hit, Cathy’s Clown, the memory of what was once exploded in high volume, great performance and a the killer drum solo at the end in which the group pushed drummer Ash Michael to possibly the peak of his time behind the snares, hi hat and symbolic cymbals.

Style comes in many forms, sometimes in the illusion of what is called fashion, for Jimmy & the Revolvers, style is just natural, a sense of giving all and regretfully feeling the fall out; however, as this night in Studio 2 proves, even if they are not around, their hold on the musical psyche of Liverpool holds absolute.

Ian D. Hall