With the odd exception, the world of Progressive Rock doesn’t feature too highly in the realms of Liverpool’s astonishing contribution to the world of music. There are elements, bands, even albums that go down that road, notably and arguably The Beatles opus Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is a tremendous foray into the genre but it still doesn’t get the airplay it deserves. There may be many reasons for it, but it doesn’t disguise the fact that there are many thousands of fans who clamber for any type of band delving into the unknown from Aigburth to Bootle and the surrounding, ever growing enclave that is Merseyside.
One such band coming to Liverpool is Lifesigns and for one person in particular, the multi-talented John Young, it is a welcome addition to what is a very busy period for him in what has been a great musical adventure.
The keyboardist and vocalist with the band, John Young grew up in Liverpool and over the years has worked artists such as Uli Jon Roth, Steeleye Span, Asia, Paul Rodgers and Fish.
Now as he prepares to come home and perform at the Zanzibar Club, and ahead of a whirlwind few days, I catch up with John.
Are you looking forward to, what is effectively, coming home?
JY: “Yes, it’s been a long time, the last time I was up there was with Qango when we played the Royal Court many years ago. I think that was probably in 2001, so it’s going to be great to see some familiar faces or not!”
You’ve not played the Zanzibar before, have you?
JY: “No, I haven’t, there’s been a few venues that have been in touch from time to time but I understand that Zanzibar is quite cosy which is what we need.”
Lifesigns music – which is the most interesting point about all of this, it’s of a genre that doesn’t particularly get the attention it deserves in Liverpool. It’s nothing against Liverpool and nothing against the genre of the music but the two don’t seem to marry that well, do you see what I mean?
JY: “Well, I’m of an age when we used to go and see this genre of music at The Empire every week and it was fantastic back then. It’s not aged well particularly around the planet so it’s not just Liverpool. I do think that there’s quite a storm behind progressive music at the moment and it is at long last, progressing again. There’s a lot of good new bands coming through, there’s some young bands who are changing audiences’ views. The audience profile has gone from being dominated by the older males who went to see it first time around to a mix of male and female, old and young.. a very positive step.
The band are really visual with Jon and Niko to the front so I think there’s a lot of energy and power in the shows and that’s what really appealing to people. If we get the same reaction that we did at the recent York show, then I’ll be very happy.”
You’re going straight from Liverpool to onto the three-day weekend down at Pwllheli?
JY: “Yes, Liverpool’s basically a rehearsal show. It’s difficult, you can’t really take a show like this on tour although we are trying to do that in December but when you are just fresh out of the box, it’s very difficult to string dates together. You have to try and get one there and then another. We thought great, as we’re up in North Wales, we’ll put a Liverpool gig in and we did and now there’s quite a lot of interest which is great. It was initially quite hard to get a venue but now this will be the day before HRH and then it will be straight over to Harwich and on the ferry for the Marillion Convention in Holland.”
So, that’s a very busy three days of work, there’s no getting around that is there – Liverpool, Pwllheli, Holland! There’s not a lot of bands that would do that, you know?
JY: “Well, our best one so far was that we did Manchester and then a festival in Wales the following night and then the next night we were in Rotterdam and it was all driven that was quite a trip!”
That must take you back to your younger days when that would have seemed quite the norm, doing all that work?
JY: “Generally I’ve spent most of my time playing keyboards for other people so you get used to being treated in a nice way flying about and being looked after, all that kind of thing. Now, we just put the gear in the back of the van and go and we’re all enjoying ourselves and as a band, we have a great time together so it’s going to be great in Liverpool.”
I wish obviously the three dates go well, I’m astounded, I don’ know how you do it, I couldn’t do it! Do you find that as you’re getting older, do you find touring still as fun?
JY: “I’ll answer that in two ways; yes it’s still fun and the adrenalin from the shows is great. One of the things I like about the Lifesigns show, which hasn’t happened to me in a long time with music in general is the feeling that I used to get when I went to see an early Genesis concert.When they were (for example) playing The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and you hadn’t even got the album yet and similarly with Yes and all those bands. I used to get such a sense of excitement going to concerts and I found that was something that waned for me over the years. I find for myself and it seems within the audiences coming to the shows now that there is a tangible excitement which I love, it’s fantastic; that really takes me back to my childhood. The only thing I’ve found, getting back to the question, is that of course the adrenalin kicks in and away you go and then a couple of days later you have to remember how old you are! I think it’s all fine while it’s happening but a few days later you will ache that’s for sure.”
It’s interesting that you are coming back to Liverpool, obviously I saw the signs going around can you help us try and sort out a venue and you haven’t been here for quite a while now, do you think Liverpool has changed in its appreciation or it’s values over the years?
JY: “I think one of the beauties of Liverpool is that it’s a fabulous city and I loved it as a kid. I’ve obviously travelled the world since I left but it’s a city of real character. Strangely enough I think that comes from being on a river and being a point of transit, it generally makes a city more exciting. I remember when we used to book The Warehouse all those years ago and there were no bands, everything went dead, it was really difficult you know, everyone jumped on the punk bandwagon and were putting bands like The Eurthymics on for £75.00! It was very difficult to get bands to play and now there are far more bands than there are venues, so it’s kind of turned turtle.
When I grew up in Liverpool, there were a lot more venues than there were bands so it was relatively easy to get gigs and a lot more people went to see shows. I think it’s just a question of awakening I think. Liverpool is a good place to do that, there is this vibrancy, if you can awaken this enthusiasm for live music I am sure that Liverpool will be one of those places that will absolutely flower, it will be incredible. I’m not saying that lots of people don’t go and see current live music, all I’m saying is for that for our type of music that would be great. Does that make sense? To be honest, I’m not the person to ask, I occasionally come back to Liverpool to see my family but I don’t get out to town much. I’m hoping I can still find my way around.”
One last question if I may and obviously you’ve been around music a long time, you’ve done so much, is there anything left that you want to do?
JY: “Yes, in terms of career, I’ve been very lucky, I’ve had a career that’s expanded in many directions, I’ve played with lots of bands and done quite a lot of television music too which has been fun. I have to say for me, this ride that I’m on at the moment is probably the ride of my life and I think that Lifesigns is probably the best band that I’ve worked with, musician-wise and friendship-wise, it’s fantastic and it’s wonderful seeing people accept us as we go forwards. Obviously there are people out there who will never get to hear it – our regular phrase is that you can lead everyone to the water but can’t make them drink it really is quite difficult.
To put it in a nutshell, Steve, Frosty and myself who invented the album along with Mr. Beggs in the early days – we never grew tired of it, we knew it had something to offer and we thought that if we could make it work live it just might have the same effect on others and it seems to be working. So the joy that it’s bringing to all of us and the people around us, as I said before, is tangible and I’m hoping that we can continue to build on that and achieve the goals that we set out to achieve.”
Lifesigns perform at Zanzibar on Thursday 19th March.
Ian D. Hall