INTERNATIONAL POP OVERTHROW - FRIDAY (DAY 4)

GIG: International Pop Overthrow Liverpool – Day 4 (Friday)
DATE: Friday 16th May 2013
VENUE: Cavern Pub & Club, Mathew Street, Liverpool
COST: £4 entry after 8pm at the club

This is blog is intended to be a way for us to capture our personal memories from all the gigs we go to see. The International Pop Overthrow in Liverpool hosts over 150 artists, across 3 stages, ranging from solo acts with an acoustic guitar to full on rock bands covering different music styles from folk, pop, rock and everything in between!!!! Whilst we can’t see every artist / band, we try to catch as many as we can. Some we like, some we love, some are pure nuggets and some are just not our cup of tea. This is just our personal opinion of the acts we see through the IPO festival, highlights and lowlights included. If there’s a band we are not fond of, do still check them out as tastes differ and you could have a different opinion from us.


Bands seen today = 15
Fun of The Pier, The Synchymes, Random Sound (part), The Temponauts, The Marvelous Beauhunks, Match Factory, Jeremy, Tony Hazard (twice), Cocktail Slippers (twice), The 286 (part), Robert Vincent, The Silver Factory, Jimmy & The Revolvers, The Maureens, The Sorrows (part)
No of different bands seen so far = 42
CDs: Cocktail Slippers – both albums, Jeremy

Day 4 and the schedule starts to get very busy, with the bands kicking off from mid-day. Our first band was Nottingham-based husband and wife duo, Fun of The Pier. In the pub, with acoustic guitar and semi acoustic bass, this pair brighten your afternoon with their sunshiney, breezy folk/pop. Friday lunchtime in the Pub means a transient, chattery crowd which can be very annoying when you are trying to listen to an acoustic set, but the pair gamely battled on. This year, alongside their own material, the pair did a Frank Turner cover which went down well. An example of how you can be effective with a good voice and a guitar.

Fun of the Pier

The Sunchymes

Another acoustic act was on the Pub stage next. The Sunchymes, the brain child of Aaron Hemmington, is really a studio band so it was always going to be a challenge for Aaron to reproduce his summery pop sounds with just an acoustic guitar and his vocals. The songs themselves are very good, but with the noisy pub crowd, his confidence seemed to shrink a bit and it was hard for him to engage the audience and bring them into his sunshine world. He'd do well to say more than just the names of the song if he wants to win the crowd.

Across, on the Club’s backstage, Random Sound were just getting started. They had done a lot of promoting the night before, with flyers etc, so we thought we would give them a go. We were not impressed at all. They had a good look, but sounded more like an X-Factor type pop act so we didn’t stay for their whole set.

Heading back to the Pub, we caught a band we’ve seen a few times at the IPO over the years, The Temponauts from Italy. They are a really jingly jangly band, with a real authentic, solid, powerpop/rock sound. No Rickenbackers this year, but still highly enjoyable. Slimmed down to a four piece now, this was the best they've been.

The Temponauts

The Marvellous Beauhunks

Following this, a band all the way from Canada, The Marvellous Beauhunks. These five guys played a good set of feet tapping tunes, with a decent beat behind them. They seemed to be a tight group, knowing their music well and appeared to have been playing together for a while (we found out later they have been together for three years).

There was quite a good Friday afternoon crowd in the Pub who really appreciated their sound and gave the band a great reception. It's not very often you see a guitarist rocking out in a shirt and tie and a cardy! The WAGS took loads of pictures (one with the camera equivalent of the Hubble Telescope :-)) and videoed their set. They were very good with the audience too.

On the back stage, a young band from London, Match Factory, had already started their set but thankfully we only missed their first song. They had a fresh sound with a bit of a reggae beat from the bass player who also used a wah wah pedal. The lead vocalist was a strong front man, who also had a good sense of humour asking the audience to come up and say hello after the gig and that “feedback is good. Just don’t make us cry as we have another gig later!”. Certainly worth catching – we liked this band. Great songs.

Match Factory

Todd Borsch

Next on the bill was The Jeremy Band, all the way from the US. Performing at every IPO we have been to in Liverpool, record label boss Jeremy Morris is one of the strongest exponents of power pop you will find. He is a terrific performer and loves sharing his music with everyone. The Jeremy Band is made up of Jeremy, his son Peter, bassist Todd Borsch and drummer Dave.


The set today started off relatively gently, but for the second song, “Rainbow Bridge” which is on his new album “All Over The World”, the amp was turned up and, accommodating the guitar solo perfectly, and the party really started!

Jeremy

Jeremy was on top form, and this was one of the best gigs we’ve seen from him over the last few years. Also included in this year’s set, “I Want To Be With You”  had a bit of Eddie Cochran’s “Somethin’ Else” in the guitar riff which sounded superb, and was typically Jeremy with a bit of jangle and a guitar solo that would make Slash crawl away in shame!

The Jeremy Band

Jeremy breaks free from the stage

Their version of “Little Help From My Friends” was awesome and had their mark stamped all over it, including some new lyrics and guitar solo. He over-ran the 30 minute slot, but we didn’t care…… his finale was his signature tune “IPO” followed by his surf set, with Misserlou and Pipeline and at this point we knew the Perspex shield at the front of the stage was not going to confine him to the stage. And there he was almost dancing on the tables amongst the audience. Fantastic set.

The Beeb was heckled by Todd for not heckling! Made us laugh.


On the front stage, Tony Hazzard who has written tons of hits for many 60’s artists such as Lulu, Manfred Mann and Andy Williams, was plugged into his own wee amp, and this softly spoken gentleman made his first IPO appearance.

Tony Hazzard

A mixture of songs and tales, with a guitar and a ukulele,  Tony was entertaining. As with many of the solo or acoustic performances in the Cavern, there was a lot of background noise from the early evening drinking throng who had come in only for  a drink and were not watching the performances which we feel may have put Tony off a bit, as he must have had trouble hearing himself. Having said that, those who were watching and listening to him, enraptured (and there was a good number of these) really enjoyed his show and were very appreciative.

We also caught his second slot later in the evening, on the Back Stage. This later set was different from his first, and included a few naughty phrases in “70 Not Out” inspired by a trip to Honolulu with his aunt that never happened. He is a good songwriter and had a few more tales to tell, including one when he just packed all his documents in a briefcase, put his guitar on the back seat and drove around the country for three months. We all helped him sing “Hangover Blues” after that tale.

After Tony’s first set, we saw an absolutely brilliant band from Norway, The Cocktail Slippers. We absolutely LOVED this band and judging by the reaction of the audience, the crowd watching them on the front stage felt the same. These girls are produced by Little Steven from the E Street Band, so you know there is something good here, and not only did they have the fab 60’s girl group look with a black and white theme, they had a “Go-Go’s meets the 60’s” sound too.

The Cocktail Slippers - the splits

With a beautiful, engaging, main singer who was so athletic she did the splits, the other members of the band were real musicians who all looked lovely and could sing too, adding some terrific girl group harmony sound. They nailed it. Most of their set was punchy, punky tunes with harmonies and a particular highlight for Minty was a slightly slower number, “Castle In The Sand” which was sung with such emotion and feeling it was incredible.

The Cocktail Slippers

This was another band where we caught both sets. Later on, in the back stage, there was a sizeable dose of male testosterone in the air as the girls sparkled once again. The only thing missing from this second set was the splits!  They really enjoyed their stint in the Cavern and gained quite a few fans. Both of their albums were purchased!
Check this band out : www.cocktailslippers.com

The Cocktail Slippers wow the back stage

The 286

We saw the last number from The 286 on the back stage and what a great number it was. It has whetted our appetite for their London IPO performance next week. The 286 are a mixture of pop and classical, described in the programme as “clashing rock n’ roll riffs with cellos and violins” and that is exactly what they did – it sounded superb.


Robert Vincent has a country feel about him, with a feel good factor added. This year on the back stage he had a full band, including keyboard player and with three of the band adding backing vocals, his music had a real depth and sounded lovely. His vibe is quite Jayhawks / Grand Drive.  There was a lot of support for this guy so the back room made some noise after each song, and rightly so.

Robert Vincent

The Silver Factory

Next on the back stage was Leicester based, The Silver Factory. We had seen this band at the London IPO last year and liked their look and their sound. In the Cavern, they sounded great. A mid-60's mod look, but jingly jangly psychedelia is their sound and record label owner, Jeremy appeared to be really impressed with them.

They have a great front man, and Minty has never seen anyone play the tambourine and look so sexy (sorry Beeb) and the rhythm guitarist added some terrific backing vocals. As a group these guys are vibrant, and with the room filling up, the audience seemed to like them a lot. We certainly did. Hopefully it won't be too long before they lay down a few more tracks and release their music. In the meantime, check out their facebook page and listen to some of their tunes.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Silver-Factory/89178293796

The Silver Factory

Imagine Brian Setzer meets Johnny Cash and you have the sound of local band, Johnny And The Revolvers. Here was a band that were thrilled to be on stage, and had lots of support. A hen party in tonight, rock n’ roll chicks dressed in 50’s style polka dot circle skirts with net petticoats boogied to the tunes throughout the set. The drummer particularly stood out for us and the front man, constantly smiling endeared himself to the large audience and the cheers and whistles got louder and louder as the set went on. One number had a great doo wop style start and their last song included a bit of a drum off between the drummer and the lead singer who played the bongos. A brilliant set and a great addition to the IPO.

Johnny and The Revolvers

The Maureens

The Netherlands always sends us some great pop acts who have some fantastic harmonies. Last year we got Surf School Drop Outs and  this year, we had Beach Boys’ influenced The Maureens. Close your eyes and you could imagine being in Jeff Foskett’s front room, or mixing with the Explorers Club. The harmonies just washed over us, wave after wave, tingling our ears. Magic.



We caught the final three songs from last minute addition to the IPO bill, The Sorrows, a band that actually formed back in 1963. Dressed in their own branded black T.Shirts, this group spanned a few decades, with a mix of some original members, and some youngsters and what we heard was pretty darned good. A mix of 60’s blues rock with vintage stars, the last song was a really terrific version of “Lucille” after which the audience went wild. We wish we had had the chance to have seen more from this band.

The Sorrows

Our last act of the night was the second set from Cocktail Slippers (see above) and then we headed back to the hotel. What a terrific night of music.

And here is The Beeb having a fab night..........

with The Cocktail Slippers

and meeting Tony Hazzard