IPO LIVERPOOL - DAY 6

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Day 6
DATE: Sunday 22nd May 2011
VENUE: Cavern Pub and Cavern Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £2 cover charge after 8pm for the Club
OUR VERDICT: A great finish to our IPO


LINKS:
www.myspace.com/internationalpopoverthrow.com
http://www.internationalpopoverthrow.com/


Again, the intro blurb…….International Pop Overthrow, organised by David Bash visits Liverpool every year, and puts on a fantastic free music festival for a whole week in the land of the The Beatles. It attracts Powerpop bands from all over Europe and the rest of the world (including this year, once again, Japan, the USA and Canada). It is impossible to see every one of the bands as 3 stages are on the go simultaneously but we try to see as much as we can. We can’t promise to like all of the bands that play and certainly we will favour some over others, and indeed, some bands we like the sound of after checking them out on Myspace, may not be great performing live (and vice versa for that matter) but in this blog we offer our own personal opinion on the bands and the music we hear.



Our last day started with Ross & The Wrongens (www.myspace.com/rossandthewrongens) on the front stage. Typically Sunday lunchtime is the graveyard shift of the IPO with very few people wandering into the Cavern (having partied until 6am the night before!), but there was actually a half decent number of people in the Club for this gig.

The lead singer played acoustic guitar, with duct tape over the sound hole for some reason. The set raced along rather like The Gaslight Anthem, and the other guitarist was having loads of fun on stage, constantly beaming a wide smile. This is quite a young band, and inexperience did show through, as they appeared a bit disorganised on the set list and kept talking over each other while introducing songs.

That aside, they sounded really enthusiastic and their last song was particularly good, starting off slow and built up to a crescendo of shredding guitars to round off! We bought their CD, and really like the packaging (still to listen to the disc!).

Ross And The Wrongens

Jeremy & his band

Jeremy (www.myspace.com/jeremyamorris) was next up, having gained this extra slot due to a cancellation. Through the first part of the set, you could see he was itching to jump over the rope that formed the boundary to the stage and before long, he had unleashed one end, and with a clear passageway, he did jump off and played up close and personal to the delighted audience, starting with his surf guitar medley, progressing through a bit of Beatles and Rolling Stones, some US TV themes we can’t recall the name off, plus loads of other instros.

He included a couple of covers – “Gloria” telling us he knew the original as being by a Chicago band, The Shadows of Knight, and then “Wild Thing” starting at first in the Troggs style and then progressing to the famous  Jimi Hendrix style. This man knows no boundrys and always does a great, great show.

Jeremy plays to the audience

Moving through to the back stage, London band Mini (www.myspace.com/soundofmini) were setting up and their set included the 4 songs on the EP they were giving away free. This is a really cool band, and the drummer, who does most of the singing does have a great voice. They did attempt a cover of a David Myher song but stopped mid-way as they felt they were not doing it justice. Then they proceeded to play the best cover we heard of the day – ELO’s “Mr Blue Sky” complete with all of the falsetto harmonies. That sounded fab.

Mini

Honeybug (www.myspace.com/honeybug) followed that with another great harmonious set. David Bash introduced Ni as having vocals that would make George Michael blush! This time round we were there from the first key being played, and we heard the full version of “Night Shift”. Two songs that did stand out today were the one about the haunted house (or an Ex), with the “ba ba ba ba wow’s” which were quite reminiscent of the 40’s war time girl singers and “Lady Luck”. Ni was encouraging us all to sing along to the chorus. We had a vote for the last song – blues or pop:- Pop won!

Ni from Honeybug

On the front stage were The Mayflowers (www.myspace.com/mayflowersjp)
, all the way from Japan. They play a very fast paced set, mainly because they don’t speak English very well, so there is no banter with the audience in between songs! This year we felt they played more rock than pop, but they still sounded great. They did a great cover of the old Cookies song, "Chains" as recorded by The Beatles.

The Mayflowers

Our final band of the IPO was Blake Jones & The Trike Shop (www.myspace.com/trikeshop)  – all the way from California. Luckily due to a cancellation, they had a slot which meant we could catch them before we headed home. Blake was suffering a bit from a lost voice, but he still managed to get through the set. He plays the Theramin on stage and it was just awesome. He did a cover of “Dear Prudence” which sounded heartfelt even through the hoarse, croaky voice. Finishing with “Here Comes The Bus”, we picked up one of his CD’s and that was our IPO for this year over.

Blakes Jones & The Trike Shop -
Blake on the Theramin

Thanks to all of the bands we saw for entertaining us over the last 6 days. Thanks also to David Bash & Rina Bardfield for their dedication to power pop which makes this event happen every year. A shout out to the sound engineers – not once did we get a bad sound from any of the stages.

For the many friends we make along the way... long may this continue.


Until next year......... (or London if you’re going to be there!)

Day 6 Summary:
No. of Bands seen : 6 bands
No. of Bands seen more than once: 2 bands seen on a previous day
Best Original Song:
Best Cover: “Mr Blue Sky” - Mini
Highlight of the day: Mini and Honeybug