Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Iconic perhaps doesn’t do Suzi Quatro justice, the word somehow refuses to roll off the tongue properly, it gets caught up in the mesh of images, in the crossfire of youthful explosion of 70s teenage dreams and admiration of the first woman of Rock, through to the status she truly deserves today.

Suzi Quatro is more than a celebrity, no myth in which to shore up the name in times to come when comparing her to prodigies and marvel’s of a future yet to come; legendary is arguably the only word which screams the loudest, which is passionately in her corner and which the dedicated Liverpool Echo Arena crowd were treated to as she peeled back the years to a time when she was the cross Atlantic star, the first woman arguably to really be seen as the epitome of pure and hard edged Rock.

Legends Live, part of an evening in which the brave and soulful made their way to the Echo Arena, braced against the wind that was picking up and making the River Mersey turn its often beautiful face to a register of grey and ready fury. With so many other offerings in the city to go and partake in, the memory of the woman behind Devil Gate Drive, Can The Can and 48 Crash, behind the embracing of the leather look that inspired many, it would have been hard to stay away from such a look back at a career spanning 50 years.

The glint in the Detroit eye and bass driven pulse has never faded, the all American girl, now an ambassador for the genre and for pushing the ideal of music equality, still makes music seem impossibly cool, yet despite it all, Suzi Quatro still retains the all important factor of being remembered, the drive to continue, to thrill and the please, to make the fan smile.

With the hits, come the new songs, the special cover, in a night of great music across all four acts on the bill, perhaps one song, delivered impeccably by Ms. Quatro summed up the evening more than the chance to rekindle many a flame. To take on Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free world is a chance your arm moment, it is in itself steeped in the sense of legend and bourbon aroma filled dedication, and it was carried off with absolute purpose by the first woman of Rock.

A special moment for the Liverpool Echo Arena crowd, Can the Can, speak not in whispered tones, for the woman from Michigan who stirred a million, million hearts proved why she is legendary.

Ian D. Hall