Issue 74 / February 2017

Reviews
Bido Lito! February 2017
35
diverse facets of the city’s musical ecosystem.
First up on the impressively comprehensive
stage set-up in the Moorfields concourse is
GAZELLE, a soul singer who is today backed
by a three-piece band whose minimal grooves
serve her well in bringing to life some bankable
pop nuggets. We’re off to a promising start and
Christmas shoppers passing through seem to
agree.
A crowded concourse is keeping the
temperature from dropping too low as THE
JJOHNS take to the stage. There is no doubting
where these County Roaders come from and
their Cast-indebted, scouser-than-scouse indie
keeps up the momentum.
Proceedings are taken a bit leftfield from
here as the eccentricities of A LOVELY WAR bring
a fun-filled set of bouncing chamber pop to the
festival. When their disparate elements align,
it makes for something truly wonderful with a
Casio-driven exuberance shining through.
Perhaps more polished, with stage presence
to match their catchy soulful tracks, DELIAH
look like favourites to take the crown as their
funk-infused neo-soul songs reverberate
towards the Northern Line. These guys have an
exciting future ahead of them and the judges
appear to be taking note.
FAY MOORE’s raw talent is obvious as she
delivers an accomplished if slightly nervy set
of country pop tunes and host Jay Hynd’s Taylor
Swift comparisons are not wide of the mark.
She is followed by another set of professional
and competent musicians in the form of
STILLIA. Hailing from St Helens, the four-piece
deal in stadium-filling indie rock along the
lines of Blossoms or The Courteeners. Their
solid set should also put them into the judges’
summary conversations.
We experience a real change of pace with
the next set. Singer-songwriter ASTLES fully
captures the crowd’s attention and uses the
echo acoustics of the concourse to its full
potential with a captivating set of emotional,
finger-picked beauties. Originality, integrity
and heart are all in the Astles melting pot and
we seem to have a new contender.
The quality shows no sign of letting up as
JO MARY bring the noise. The Wirral psychsters
summon the spirit of the underground to this
underground station and we’ll definitely be
making a note to see how the quintet develop
from here. The same goes for KATIE MAC whose
trousers match her inimitable song style with
folk rock tracks which are loud, moving and
belie her young years.
The fantastic CAVEPARTY close the festival
and its fitting that a band who are clearly full
of ideas, with riffs that are as innovative as they
are catchy, should round things off so well. The
judges have a tricky task on their hands here.
The party moves to Tithebarn Street Danish
haven HUS after the musical smorgasbord
offered at Moorfields. Last year’s winner Katy
Alex welcomes the arrival of nervous artists,
supportive friends and family as well as the
panel of judges with a short set of acoustic
numbers. Shortly thereafter, head judge
Christopher Torpey makes the announcement
we’ve all been waiting for. The deserved winner
of the 2016 Merseyrail Sound Station Prize is
Astles, who showed enough talent as well as
raw potential to benefit the most from the
prize mentoring package while having enough
prowess to wow the crowd. There are no
arguments with the result and there’s a smug
satisfaction that Merseyside must contain the
most promising batch of emerging talent on
any regional railway network.
Gus Polinski
HOOTON TENNIS CLUB
Harvest Sun @ Invisible Wind Factory
Before heading off to this gig, a friend
expressed great envy that she wasn’t going
herself, and said “ooh, they found the dog!”
Wallph, a missing dog feared stolen, she
explained, posters about him all over town,
was found by HOOTON TENNIS CLUB. It threw
up an image of the band of going out and
fighting minor crimes across the streets of
Merseyside, or snuffling out lost pets at least,
in a 2016 cockapoo-whispering episode of
Scooby Doo, or The Monkees telly show.
Because that’s a bit what Hooton Tennis
Club are like; four affable types; happy, turnthat-frown-upside-down
characters. And
they’re true to form as they lollop on stage
tonight, friendly puppies themselves, and we’re
warmed by their smiles.
Starting with Growing Concerns, O Man,
Won’t You Melt Me? goes down especially well
and single from the first album P.O.W.E.R.F.U.L.
P.I.E.R.R.E is always a live favourite. Bootcut
Jimmy The G is slightly loopy, and loved by the
audience.
Bass player Callum McFadden takes on the
mantle of showman, throwing himself about
the stage, the middle visual that shouldn’t
work in theory but does anyway. We nearly got
the splits from him this evening… very nearly.
Next time, maybe. Vocalists Ryan Murphy and
James Madden share and swap roles easily and
casually, as Harry Chalmers powers away on
drums.
Hooton Tennis Club have released two
albums of quality pop songs in consecutive
years, but it’s reassuring that there’s still
something schoolboyish and ramshackle,
and slightly off the cuff about them. Ryan has
a snapped string early on in proceedings. He