Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The added bonus extra is sometimes a piece of information that really doesn’t do or give additional benefit to the enjoyment of the main piece under consideration, it would be like seeing the treasured Benjamin West painting, The Death of Nelson, in all its glory at The Walker Art Gallery and saying, well I enjoyed the painting but for added emotional pleasure it would be better if the blood was more realistic and the sound of battle could be heard in the background; some things do not need the extra added bonus.
It is normally something that you would not even think of applying to one of the great modern bands of Liverpool, an almost heretical act, a display of unbelieving in the living act of regard and respect towards Rob Clarke and The Wooltones, and yet they themselves have played a blinder in this latest release, Big Night Out. For in their own drive and exceedingly beautiful way, their music is reflected perfectly in the addition of a night captured live in celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the John Lennon and Paul McCartney meeting and the birth of the Liverpool sound.
It is the cordite smelt, the hearing of the musket being shot, the cry from the decks and the last words of a dying sea lord captured, Kismet, an album of destiny to which Big Night Out stands and regales in the wind like a Mizzen flag firmly and with pride capturing this small wind of change, one in which the main album is always appreciated and looked forward to, but in which this extra little polish of a special evening gives extra gravitas to a band who always scintillate and charm.
Whether in songs as Jump My Igloo, Last Train To Rob Clarkesville, You’re Looking Good, Better Times or Walking on Water from their own demanding and cool catalogue or in the live tracks. With original Quarrymen drummer Colin Heaton lighting the way, All Shook Up, Be-Bop-A-Lula, Baby Let’s Play House, Bye Bye Love, the upbeat and riveting Rock Island Line, Blue Moon of Kentucky and Midnight Special, Rob Clarke and The Wooltones seamlessly blend their own energetic stance into the electricity pulsing in the moment, this current, this drive is abundantly clear in this very special release and it is one in which the addition of the stunning added bonus is exactly that, a true dividend, a windfall in which to savour.
A Big Night Out, it is all we ever ask for, none of the fluff, none of the happenstance, just a sense of purity and immensity in its own right, one fulfilled by Rob Clarke and The Wooltones.
Ian D. Hall