But it 's been running for several years now, this Bank Holiday weekend I attended the Mathew Street Music Festival in Liverpool for the first time. The event was actually canceled last year due to some political issues between the local authority and the organizers but it was was made this this year it was back "Bigger and better than ever".
But it started started as a celebration of the Beatles and their music and was almost exclusively located in Mathew Street, the event has now spread to the extent that it covers many different music styles and the numbers of events for the events is now around 40! In addition to the large number of bands focussing on the Fab Four, there are tribute bands to many old and new artists, one or two originals and a significant selection of bands performance under the heading "new music".
The largest of the stages is the "Tunnel" stage, this is the most staged in the stages in various locations around the city center, which is almost completely closed to traffic. located close to the entrance to the Queensway Tunnel. With a huge arena in front of the stage, this venue attracted several thousand fans to the larger events and is where my visit began at at 1.00 pm on Sunday when I went to see "The Police Force ", not surprisingly a" Police "tribute band.
As you might expect, they simply worked through a selection of the police 's biggest hits and attracted quite a large crowd, many of which joined in even though it was quite early in the day. young and many had clearly come for a picnic, with tables and chairs dotted around, mostly on the edges of the venue.
But I was staying But I was staying. But I was staying. But I was staying. Not a tribute band but pure Cockney Gold, the original themselves, complete with Mick on the drums!
Running through "Rabbit", "London Girls", "No Pleasing You", etc., they quickly won over the audience and had a huge "singalong" atmosphere on the go. Who & # 39; d have thought it, on the banks I was reminded of when Bernn and Benny of Abba appeared at a U2 concert some years ago as this was widely acknowledged as the start of the Abba revival. Are we about about see see Chas and Dave storm up the charts again?
But it was was a decent pint and I went to the other side of the place with a lot of which seemed to charge for 3 a pint of lager or cider, or a glass of wine. very cold, so was greatly appreciated. Incidentally, the seasoned goers were clearly noticeable as they all 24-can packs of Carlsberg, Becks, etc.
Overcoming the urge to go back to the Tunnel to see "Rocks Off", a Rolling Stones tribute, I decided that it was was for a touch of "what it & # 39; s all about" and so strolled down the most heavily congested Dale Street and Castle Street to reach the "Beatlemania" stage at Derby Square.
Playing the non-stop Fab Four bands, I arrived there in time to watch the curly named "American English". Playing the usual repertoire, though more heavily focussed on the later stages of the Beatles music, they had a good look and a They actually tried to be like them (well, at least "Paul" and "John" did - the other two never spoke).
I am later told that this stage and its bands got steadily better as the day wore on.
But now in the 60 & # 39; s mood, I headed away from Derby Square and went to the Exchange Street stage, dedicated to "Merseybeat". I arrived there in time to catch the back of the end of "Mike Pender" ", playing" Needles and Pins ", followed by the one and only Merseybeats themselves. Playing to an audience which constituted significant numbers of people with gray hair (or no hair !!), this was also a well received performance.
I was to catch, singing lost of Bobby Darren, Sinatra, Dean Martin, etc. The music formed a good background to the shouting at the bar as I bought to get served!
I reached there just as the previous act "Summer of Love", a 60 & # 39 ; s tribute band, were finishing their show with "House of the Rising Sun". Approaching from the back of the crown, it was a fantastic sight as the crowd had swelled significantly as the day progressed, and even the "picnic" set were standing now.
As always with tribute bands, they focussed on the big hits but clearly this is what the crowd were here to see and almost to a man were singing along to each and every word.
With a passing "Thanks" to John Lennon, they performed "Jealous Guy" before finishing with "Over You" and "Dance Away", bringing to the end the first day of the festival. Slightly foot weary, I had seen some really good "Led Zed", "Cream" # 39; d "and" Elvis Brettini "but was eagerly looking forward to to date 2.
It is also worth mentioning the first rate job, never more so than at the end of the day when the huge crowds dispersed and were unfortunately routed away from the routes to the chosen route home.
There was only one place to the first gig on Monday and that was the Tunnel stage again to kick off at 11.00 with "Elevation", a local U2 tribute. Despite the early hour and no previous warm up, they kicked off with an explosion of faithfully reproduced U2 music, "Desire", "New Years Day", "Beautiful Day", etc. A fantastic audience sang all the way through most of the songs, culminating in "With or Without You" and "Still Have not Found .... "Clearly a band who will be welcomed back time and again, I could not help but thinking that they deserved to finish the day rather than start it.
After that, Superlambanana stage at the top of Hatton Gardens. On Sunday, this stage had been labeled as "Pub Rock" and I had not seen any of the acts, but Monday was labeled "Blues and Soul "Be aware that it is a magnet for me! I arrived there in" The Sensations ", billed as a" Soul Tribute "act. To be honest, they are simply a cabaret type group of one young lad and three girl singers, Trotting through some Motown standards they were OK, but I got the impression that the next night they would be playing at Butlins.
So I followed this with a stroll along Tithebarn Street to see "Square One", playing Coldplay music. I do not know a lot about Coldplay but I do know that my children think they 're good, so decided to stay and watch I was ready to stroll around the corner to the water Street stage to see "Dusty", the lady who recently won "The One and Only" show on TV. She was appearing on the "Divas" stage and was following "Cher", "Elton" and "Tina Turner", all the artistes from the same TV show.
These the young lads of Square One came up with the goods and kept a large audience, with a wide age range, very well entertained with some really good music. These were young, local lads and once or twice simply shouted out to the audience " As I said, I & # 39; m not big on Coldplay but these lads were good.
By the time they are time to see they went back to the Superlambanana back to the Superlambanana in time to see what was clearly a touring show, firstly with two young girls labeled "the Supremes" ,) they they also sang some Martha Reeves songs, followed by "The Temptations and Four Tops", five American men who did not look like or more sound like either groups.
The girls who did the Supremes sang pleasantly enough before they are on a laugh with each other sit well to almost at least one of them was out of tune. But the "Huggy Bear" type lead singer kept The crown entertained and I suppose on balance they were OK. The backing band to both artistes was worthy of mention with a four man brass section producing some really good sounds.
And it was was back to the Tunnel stage to see "God Save The Queen", The word spreading around town was that this was the band to see, it was clear by the massive crowds that everyone had paid heed. The comprehensive informed the audience that this band was from Argentina but included one local lad (strange?) And the tuning of the instruments, producing some very "Brian May" -like sounds, already had the crown chanting.
Now before you knew it, on came Pablo Padin, aka Freddie Mercury. Now this guy had his act off to a T. He looked like the man, sang like the man and strutted the stage like the man. It might sound a little cheesy , but it really is like being at a Queen concert. He had the audience eating out of his hands, screaming, singing, dancing and clapping along to all the old favorites. They even had a version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" which was just sublime and proved that Pablo / Freddie could play the piano as well.
But I have to say - if you have a crown and wearing an appetite for a crown and wearing an ue cloak sadly was not the prelude to an encore, just him taking a well-earned bow. Incidentally, the compere advised the crowd that the band were playing again that night at the Cavern! Quite what they would be like with their explosion of sound in such a small venue is beyond me! !
I have not had a chance to see tribute bands to Bowie, The Smiths, Blur, Amy Winehouse, Kaiser Chiefs and many, many more, had had the opportunity arose to get down to the floating stage at the Albert Dock, where the 40th Anniversary of the UK release of "Hey Jude" was to be marked by the "Hey Jude sing-a-long", led by the 3000 participants of the World Fire Fighting Games, which also took place in the city over the weekend!
I am already looking forward to next year & # 39; s event and thinking that I went home with not much voice left, aching legs from all the walking, dancing and jumping but having spent very little money as all of the events were totally free. And that can only ensure that I will never get to see it because I am afraid that I will never get to see them because there are too many bands playing in too many places. good thing.
All I can say to you all is that if you were not there, you really missed it this weekend.
