Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

With a little help from your friends, you cannot ask for more in life except having the drive to be the very best version of yourself possible, both of these states of mind are there to remind you that you have a responsibility to perform and take in the very immense situations that you may find yourself within, that the song, the smile and the swagger, are there because the world demands beauty in the face of possible oppression.

The irony is never lost upon the crowds when the obvious is in full flight, from the understandable huge disappointment in which both Rebecca Downes and her band and Magnum were hit by the Beast from the East, snow the bane of the gig goer’s existence, to the most beautiful and heat driven day in months; irony only serves to remind us that time is a mischief maker with a good heart and sublime intentions. For whilst a night at the Birmingham Town Hall would have been a great showcase for the magnificent Ms. Downes, it must surely be noted that in the very prestigious Symphony Hall, that showcase became an ornate, gilt edged display to which even the rare and passionate couldn’t compare.

It still seems surprising that there some those within the world of the Rock Blues that have not yet come across the sheer power of Ms. Downes and her band, the treat they are missing is one of seismic proportions, a woman of the Midlands to whom stands easily in the pantheon of the greats of the area, that region from Stafford across Birmingham and down towards the dreaming spires of Oxfordshire.

It is not a glib statement to suggest such riches, for in Rebecca Downes the air of prosperity is overwhelming, the deep and dusky atmosphere a statement of intent and the singular truth of being able to cover the Beatles’ track With A Little Help From My Friends with the same incredible voice that Joe Cocker provided in his reading of the song; this is a woman to whom the Symphony Hall is as suited as the regal nature of the stage of Bilston Robin or the famous old original Academy on the other side of the city centre.

With songs such as Never Gonna Learn, Night Train, the wonderful Sailing On A Pool Of Tears and Believe being placed in front of the Birmingham audience, this was the shining cabinet full of treasure, a brief but important resume in which to admire and to ask more of.

The perfect support to Magnum, both bands complementing each other in a way that was beyond passionate; it was a love affair of music in Birmingham that never should end.

Ian D. Hall