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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | Mark Hershberger <markwayne61@yahoo.com> |
| Subject | IPO LIVERPOOL RECAP |
| Date | Thu, 23 Oct 2003 06:03:51 -0700 (PDT) |
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START SAVING NOW FOR NEXT YEAR! YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT!
Hey....nothing at all wrong with hitting the U.S. IPO's and Sparklefests and the like. Support those as well....but, with airfares being rather cheap.....start planning on being at next years IPO in Liverpool!! What a FAB time!!
Liverpool is a great city.....not the blighted industrial wasteland I was genuinely expecting. Very historic....incredible architecture......super friendly natives. Surem the food left a lot to be desired, and Iced Tea is frowned upon, but all in all a marvelous place to be for a music festival. And, being in The Cavern....only mere yards away from the original spot where the Beatles played 290+ times...well, the vibe was very cool. I probably walked over 30 miles in 7 days seeing all the sites I could. The museum, the cathedral (awesome!).....all the shopping areas where they close down the streets to people can walk freely. Of course, I did the Beatles related tours to Penny Lane and Strawberry fields etc etc.....just too much fun!
Now, the festival.....wow, kudos to Dave Bash for putting together an awesome itinerary of top notch talent for 7 days. And, for the most part, it went off so smoothly running 2 seperate stages at 15 minute intervals. Great way to see many bands! Got a real taste of tons of live music! Pleasure to be there Dave...fantastic job! Nice to meet Rina as well!
So many good bands that just tore the place up that it would take too much bandwidth to write about it all...but, let me just generally cover what really stood out for me!
Anton Barbeau - Crazy...insanely quirky....kills live!
Ricky - Young U.K. band . Very jangly and melodic. Byrdsy in places. Huge potential!
Cheese, Happy Losers, Celebrity Squares, Shiner 22, Piper Downs - All outstanding!
Water - Interesting middle of the road pop from this Backbeat movie George!
General Store - great stuff live - Tam is a talented guy indeed
Frank Barajas - first time I've seen him - real good rootsy rock
Marshmallow, Louis Eliot, Scooters - all melodic sweet pop - bought all Rialto discs and all Scooters discs for sale!
Orgone Box - Well, many were disappointed that Rick Corcoran only played a stripped down acoustic set (Markus Holler on electric, female back-up vocalist there as well). It didn;t really bother me much as I am a fan of his lyrics as much as the psychedelic barage of guitars, so I enjoyed hearing his words in a stripped down setting. Got to talk a bit with him as well and found him utterly engaging! Wish Markus Holler would played some of his tracks as well....maybe next year!
Sweet Apple Pie - JUST KILLED! These guys (and gal) are awesome live! Whew....still reeling from that set!
Tony Rivers . Castaways / Harmony Grass - Harmonies just do not get better than this live! Their versions of Caroline, No and Girl Don't Tell Me were also highlights.
Favorite Night? Hail Svenska! With bands like The Rhinos, Pendletones, Dorian Gray and THe MopTops all on one stage, it was almost overwhelming! Rhinos had super harmonies, The Pendletones were bang on and finished their set by trashing their guitars and keyboards..quite a show, Dorian Gray were outstanding having one of the best lead vocalists of the week. The Mop Tops were everything I expected them to be and more! And, to really complete the night....I ran to the back stage to catch part of The Jessica Fletchers, who were quite good, and was completely blown away by RockFour's stage show. Not only musically incredible, but what a stage presence! Wow! The Gripweeds closed the night in typical awesome Gripweeds fashion! They are just too good!
Some more highlights....
Jeremy - JAM Records night - Mild mannered Jeremy's explosion of mic trashing set smashing fury at the end of his outstanding set really sealed the week for me! The sound guys from the Cavern were a bit pissed, but man, it was in the moment! The crowd was nuts and Jeremy just went with it! Great stuff my man!
Bronco Bullfrog and The Winnery's were also very very good!
Anti-Product - A Glam / Metal Tubes-like freak show....but with pretty good pop songs for the evening was quite entertaining. They pulled off one of the coolest stunts when they got most of the audience up on stage as A. Product (singer) went down front to watch as the "crowd" broke into a great version of "Blitzkrieg Bop"...very cool!
The Andersons closed the festival with an outstanding set and pretty much left me and most people still standing quite exhausted!
All this....and yet, there were many more more super sets that I just couldn;t think about at this moment! One word? Overwhelming!
Really a pleasure to meet Jean and Carol-Anne!
Bruce Brodeen - we might just have bonded for life at the Everton / Southampton Premiership match we took in together! Either that or it was the dozen pints or so at the Salutation Pub! Anyone jealous that we got into the stadiun the day before to take pictures with no one else there?? Down on the field? Cool....
Jeremy - always a pleasure! You've got great kids as well! You're set just killed! It was my pleasure to walk Mathew Street with you during the mardi gras like mania that was Friday night in Liverpool!
Ringle Todd and Dave Dietrich! I've got video of both of you in compromising positions with what seem to be underage Liverpool birds wearing next to nothing and staggering up Mathew Street at 2:30 a.m. Saturday Morning! Wait...sorry, that's me on the video! Great to spend time with both of you! Super individuals! See all of you in Philly in Novermber!
In summary! IPO Liverpool was just over-the-top fun!! It looks like it will return again in 2004. If it does, anyone who can make it should really consider going as it is the total pop music experience! Beatles and IPO! Outstanding!
Mark Hershberger
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