Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Graham Gouldman at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. October 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Graham Gouldman always comes across as that kindly uncle who also happens to double up as the most interesting man in the room and finds time to have one of the sharpest song writing minds of the last 50 years. It is a moment of pleasure in your own life when you realise just how exquisite the songs that he has been involved in, across his own solo career, with one of the biggest bands of their time or for others, luminaries such as The Yardbirds or for The Hollies, nothing comes close to that feeling, nothing prepares you for the delights to come.

As Graham Gouldman and his touring band, took the Epstein Theatre crowd down the long and enjoyable road of reminisce and passionate muses, many heralds of evocative recollections stood out, songs that have not withstood time and its sometimes eagerness to take an axe to the beautiful, but which have become standard bearers for others to follow as they make a career of writing songs, not for the money but for the richness of having a name.

The sound of experience is one not to be dismissed, under no circumstances lightly, never out of hand and certainly not on the whim of fashion or change; for Graham Gouldman, experience is the result of the kindling fire reaching its potential and keeping the memories alive as you stare into the flickering flames of music.

As songs such as Pamela Pamela, No Milk Today, Good Morning Judge, Love’s Not For Me, Dancing Days, I’m Not In Love, Bus Stop, The Things We Do For Love, the passionate declaration of love in the song Ariella, Memory Lane and Dreadlock Holiday filled the Epstein Theatre with a sense of splendour, of appreciation for the time span of music on offer, the audience could feel the  great body of work coming out of the man; perhaps with a sense of thanks that they were able to relive the songs once more.

With the wonderful gesture of thanks to the memory of Tom Petty during the set, much must be made of the icons and the founders of the flame, to witness such stirring work by one of Britain’s foremost and enlightened songwriters of the last 50 years, we must remember to salute when we can, the talent that drove us to this point in the first place; a superb night of music at the Epstein, Graham Gouldman at his always consummate best.

Ian D. Hall