Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

To make the audience focus completely on the drama unfolding before them takes consummate skill, a deftness of spirit, the potency of allure and the mystery, the sense of living through a moment so tangible that it seems all the functions of the human body stop what they are doing and just sit in the honour of the spectacle; to focus so much that you cannot hear a crowd breathe during a song and then applaud like a series of rolling thunderstorms across an empty desert, that is the absolute found.

Alison Moyet is one of those particular vocalists to whom all must be put down and forgotten whilst you are in her presence, the call of the stage, of songs written in teenage frustration, of comfortable intensity and memories in which we must all share eventually; it is not so much a Nobody’s Diary but the story of a woman who sings the Blues, Pop and theatrical arrangements with ease and who, it has to be noted, still retains that glorious sparkle in her eyes and to whom the captured red and white lights around the stage gave an earnest Berlin cabaret-style that was welcome and craved for.

To think back to the 1980s when Alison Moyet burst onto the scene as part of Yazoo is to understand why longevity has been perhaps eroded in many aspects of life, the styles may change but the determination to sing, to install a sense of passion in an audience has never wavered and when it is done in front of a Liverpool audience it is done with the knowledge that the respect won is there for almost as long as forever lasts.

Longevity, the endurance of the 80s pop stars to still come back to the stage and perform as well, and in many cases better, than they did in the manic days of their first appearance is riveting, in Alison Moyet it is utterly beguiling. As she took the audience through songs such as When I Was Your Girl, Beautiful Gun, Only You, The English U, All Cried Out, a stunning rendition of The Man in the Wings, a charming dedication to community and acceptance in The Rarest Birds, Situation and Love Resurrection, the music swayed, tantalised like a cobra in a basket but one whose coils were wrapped in the beat of a heart of love, until the crowd inside the Philharmonic Hall were hypnotised by the sound of the low and the exquisite.

A fantastic night out for fans of any genre to enjoy, Alison Moyet was not only on top form on a Liverpool night, she was magnificent.

Ian D. Hall