Wirral Folk on the Coast - Vale Park - 11/6/2006

A really pleasant Sunday afternoon spent in the sun, listening to live music in the company of many friends.

That would probably do to describe this afternoon's event, but we should make mention of the various artists who took part - we missed Tansky (sorry lads) , but we arrived just in time to hear most of Garva's set, which was a mixed blessing because it meant that being early on, the set would be short, and to my mind (and many others I spoke to), Garva should have had the last and longer slot - it was certainly perfect music for the event, local musicians playing all manner of music, notably their well know version of Ray Davis' "Waterloo Sunset" - with Tony Gibbons (vocals, cittern), Terry Coyne (vocals, flute, whistles, fiddle) and Lesley McGough( keyboard and vocals) and two special guest who's names I didn't right down, but I'll ask Shay later in the week and add them in then! It all ended far too soon, we were still tucking into our picnic lunch!

Next up were Vocal Point - a new band featuring John and Angie Owen, John's sister Sue Farley, and Patricia Ward - as their name suggests, Vocal Point make good use of the 3 voices available to them, with just a small amount of acoustic guitar and occasional percussion from Angie when required. I have always liked John's voice and the group have a good harmonic sound, and how good it is to have the a group where the male sex is for once in the minority. They got an enthusiastic response, and certainly their opener - an African sounding song, delivered a'capella, was really good, and each of the 3 singing members was given a solo spot. Perhaps this venue was a little too wide open for this sound though, certainly we've heard them in more intimate settings sounding great, and the delicate harmonies really do deserve to be heard, but the songs where well chosen and well done. One final observation - they all stood about 6 or more feet apart on the stage - surely a group like this need to be closer together?!

The event was headed up by "The Neil Spiers Band" - a new name to me - even when he explained it wasn't his real name I still hadn't heard of him! "Neil" is a talented multi-instrumentalist who managed to play at least 4 instruments in his set - guitar, banjo, low whistle, and clarinet and he was backed by a further guitarist, bass and keyboards, with Lisa featuring on lead vocals for many of the songs. The band was rather new, in fact they claimed to have only played all together once, yesterday, so there was more than a hint of the act being something new and not yet having found its real identity, and some of the (very) newly written lyrics felt a little repetitive - however there were some really strong points too - an instrumental "Made to Measure" for instance, Lisa's solo "When You Hear a Baby Cry" - a complex and unaccompanied veganic lyric delivered well if still a little raw. Another good song, "Pit Brown Lassie" had a really traditional feel to it, and I enjoyed that, but overall the set lost my attention several times, and there were a lot of people heading home before it finished. As I said earlier, it could have been better if Garva had filled this spot, and let Neil Spiers have a more concise set earlier on, but lets not go on about it, it was a lovely afternoon, and the venue is perfect when the weather co-operates.

Thanks to the organisers and especially to Richie Woods and everyone who did a great job on the sound - a huge improvement on last year and it really made a difference.