Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Music Room at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall has played host to the great and the good, it has become a place where a spiritual journey is undertaken, where reactions and passions run high, a meeting place perhaps where the Emotional Geography of the land finds a way to be paid out and given the detailed scrutiny once only available to those with a keen interest in ordnance survey, the peaks, the troughs and the places of interest that are always within walking distance but so few make the effort to explore.

It is to that end, with the observance to the natural musical features and talents at his disposal, that Alan O’ Hare’s Only Child took to the stage and showcased some of the new songs that make up the band’s third release, Emotional Geography, to an audience that was eager to unfold this particular road map into the insights of the popular musician and appreciate the topography that gives credence and hope to what is on our doorsteps.

It is perhaps in keeping with the highly held opinion of Mr. Alan O’ Hare that in the adjoining room of the Philharmonic Hall was one of the nation’s favourite poets, Dr. John Cooper Clarke, the attitudes in part may be wildly different but there is no doubting that both of these men are natural poets, both expressive in their observations, both with a will to see the world put right. Through his music Alan O’ Hare, regardless of whether he is performing solo on stage and running his guitar through an acoustic section, or indeed at the helm of the Only Child vessel, poetry runs through his veins.

A blistering set included songs such as Higher Ground, Green Eyes Singing, Lookin’ For A Song, Beautiful Bobby Dylan, the enormously passionate Scouse, Accidental Englishman, North John Street, St. Saviours Square, a thrilling cover of Fisherman’s Blues and the finale of Thinking Of A Place, that poetry was to be heard, experienced fully and joined by an array of talent that included Jon Lawton, Lee Shone, Amy Chalmers, Stuart Todd, Howard Northover and the sensational Vanessa Murray alongside the poetically inclined songwriter.

A blessing of an album launch, as keen as you could hope for, as understanding to the audience as any musician but one that captures something indelible, who seeks to understand what makes his mind think and the city to which he has bared his soul to; Emotional Geography is the key to expressing thanks.

Ian D. Hall