Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The vibe is just as important as the aftermath, the importance of feeling something in the air begin to glow, to shimmer with excitement, the build-up of atmosphere. The sense of the occasion grow like vines from the ground up, that vibe is what makes an evening become an event and when that event takes the attendee to places they thought they might not see again, when they feel the fine hairs on the back of their neck stand on end and the mind is completely transfixed to the point where they don’t know if anyone else is the room, that is when the vibe breaches the soul, that is when they know they have been taken to Heaven and back.
The point of a rare occurrence, no matter how good anything else may have been before, is that it happens rarely, the fates must align, the concern of knowing that something extraordinary might occur must be enjoyed, not squashed, flattened, denied, but instead embraced; by drinking in the vibe you open yourself to feeling alive.
W. H. Auden espoused the virtue of the Shropshire Lad, Alfred Edward Housman, a man for the ages, and the man who captured the essence of the British youth, but where does youth go when it has adult themes, when it has true modern reflections to understand. For those who attended the album launch of Thom Morecroft’s new album at Studio 2, for the curious and those who have seen this new Shropshire man grow and become one of the hardest working musicians in the Liverpool Renaissance age, then the answer became apparent, the innocence of youth is laudable, it is in the man that we see truth presented.
The launch of an album is a delicate birth, months of planning, the right support, the concern, the worry… all handled beautifully on the night, and as songs from The Feng Shui And The Sushi played out, as the exuberance, the gentleness of the players around him, Max O’ Hara, Danny Bradley, James Thorne, Sam Burkett, Elle Schillereff, and Limerance’s Calum Gilligan and Jenny Coyle elevated the evening to a place where those present surely, arguably felt they were watching one of the finest gigs they were likely to ever witness, then the vibe was assured, from the ground up, it soared.
Across songs such as Moon Moon Shake It, The French Girl, I’ve Made Room, Pictures In The Sun, The Least That You Can Do, Time Will Tell, You Can Lay, On All Night and the sweet finale of The Beast, Thom Morecroft didn’t just hold the audience’s attention, he revelled in it, he gave them a reason to believe that life was rare, that beauty was to be found in the unique and in the common place at all times, and for this Shropshire lad, a time of embracing the profound was at hand.
Arguably one of the most sensational, brilliant gigs of the last ten years to have taken place in Liverpool; a night when everything aligned for the greater good.
Ian D. Hall