Saffron at the 02 Academy, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Just one look from the stage down at the heaving throng of fans said it all. The perhaps half missed wink from Saffron in the general direction of fans who clambered alongside Republica for the incredible ride suggested further hair raising times ahead and yet the manner of the performance was one of electric reminisance and a love rekindled for many in the o2 Academy in Liverpool. The wink, the strut, the pulse of a heartbeat growing stronger by the second proposed the adulation of a band that were cruelly cut off in their prime but who now in the form of the stunning Saffron, Tim Dorney and Jonny Glue, were back and sounding as terrific as they did in 1995.

After resurfacing in the last few years, the good ship Republica are on tour once more, this time supporting Space, and judging by the excitable crowd, the look of love had snapped back into place as if seeing your old senior school love in a room again for the first time in 20 years, the same click of the fingers and you could not help be transported back to those heady days. The intoxication of impulsive attitude coming off the stage and in Saffron the prompt return of a woman who in the 1990s had few serious challengers and who on this showing could still knock seven bells of most of them today.

The impish defiance was there from the start and as bold as brass stance took hold, the audience lapping up the feminine assertiveness, the tunes kept coming. From the great start of Bloke, to old favourites and some tasty new songs that whet the appetite of perhaps a longer tour and set to come in the future, Republica stormed the defences of everyone in the room and left no one standing in their way. Tracks such as From Rush Hour With Love, Out Of The Darkness, the brilliant Picture Me, the awesome and confidence oozing Christiana Obey and the barnstorming Ready To Go were enough to get the juices going and demand more time in which to lap up the sight of a band back to take the world on piece by piece.

For anyone of a certain age, Republica were not just soldiers in the front line of a new approach, they were generals who were let go too soon, it’s a good job the public never lets go completely of those that fought the good fight.

Ian D. Hall