The Zutons bring the curtain and house down on Liverpool Sound City

Dave and Abi get the crowd going

Photographs by Simon Barrow
www.simonbarrowphotography.co.uk

This homecoming gig highlighted three things, The Zutons are one of the best live bands Liverpool has to offer, Deltasonic have made a long-term mistake by dropping them and that they need urgent attention to re-capture their early creative brilliance.

Closing Sound City with an intimate concert inside the grandeur of St Georges' Hall the band burst into life getting the crowd jiving away under the swinging chandeliers and soon had sweat dripping from the ceiling and down towards the ornate white statues.

But one thought... why have a gig sponsored by a major drinks company, where you can't take any beverages into the music room? Someone must have drunk too much cider when they picked the venue.

Acoustically you couldn't want a better hall to snare the pounding rhythms of The Zutons' hits, reverborating every note of Abi Harding's soulful sax and bouncing them across frontman Dave McCabe's rasping voice, which gets better with age.

Zuton Fever and Pressure Point from their debut album Who Killed the Zutons? had the audience eating out of their hands and 'ah hoo hoo hoo'ing along.

Also, the reaction to the lyrics and emotional depth of Why Won't You Give Me Your Love? from second record Tired Of Hanging Around show that they used to be the thinking fan's band of choice.

For their new album it seems as though Dave and the Huyton-born band have picked phrases their mums or mates hurl at them, randomly trying to build a song around them.

The lyrics 'just wait till I get you home, what's your problem?' (repeated ad infinitum) and 'You Never Think' are all turgid although there are some flashes of brilliant music and previous success buried away in there.

We won't be alone in saying that there is something amiss from The Zutons new songbook. It has caused much tension between the band and their inner circle and we're hoping with confident performances such as this they will come out on top.

And you can see it in the crowd's patient reaction to the new tunes, although upon hearing the opening of Valerie the audience were jumping up and down and mesmorised again.

We caught Abi on her way out of the toilets, all tousled hair and denim hot pants. She changed into a flirty candy-striped culotte playsuit and had the crowd fixated.

How can you go wrong with a female sax player who bounces around the stage when she's not tooting the brass and a group with such musical dexterity?

Hopefully we won't have long to wait for an answer as The Zutons are supposed to be working on their fourth album although Dave and co remain tight lipped on any other details, such as how they, or who will release it for them.

The only bit of banter that Dave entered into was to dedicate a song to 'the blondie up there in the balcony who hasn't stopped dancing all night...'

Pleased as punch she exclaimed loudly and perhaps in the most gutteral scouse accent to echo around the chambers of St George's Hall since Ringo Starr last year: "Oh my God that's me... Woo Dave! I f**kin' love you!'

Merseyside's hotly-tipped Sound Of Guns opened the proceeding in fine fashion, winning new fans and testing the sound system's volume with their upcoming single Architects, which has already been getting Radio One airplay.

Also on the closing trail of the festival, we encountered the delightful Leeds-based trio Sky Larkin delighting a crowd in Korova's basement with their witty lyrics.

Singer Katie baffles and endears the audience in between songs with wistful tales of previous gigs and observations she's made throughout the day.

Drummer Nestor pounded the skins in the back with ferocity and at once personified the ending of Sound City, soaked through to the skin with sweat from giving his all to the music and tired from the effort, yet still wanting more.



Click Recommends:You Can Do Anything, The Zutons, 2009

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