Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10
Some people are just destined to be on the stage and become the natural performer that fortune and Kismet nod their approvals for, for the future belongs to them.
In Mersey Wylie, a woman whose very name holds fascination and the sense of History that the city of Liverpool enjoys to the very maximum, kismet has more than met its match. For the sheer presence of the woman as she sings has undergone so much revolution and wonderful development from the first moments she stood on the stage at Zanzibar just a mere 16 months ago. Already brimming with the cool and the collected, she now radiates gravitas and so much fun that Quality Street would do well to take notes on what fun actually is; fun it seems is to watch Mersey Wylie enjoy herself as she sings songs that captivate and take your heart prisoner.
Only on the rarest of occasions has the Studio 2 stage held the type of numbers on it that Mersey Wylie brought to the fore on an August evening which had more in company with the thought of a night by the fire, the crackling of recently chopped wood spitting in the dark, than the balmy summer’s evening in which the night demanded.
Yet despite the grey night outside, the missing balmy closeness was more that beautifully enjoyed inside as Ms. Wylie was joined by both her two long standing cohorts on her adventure, Jack Beacall and Jack Taylor on guitars, both of whom gave so much feeling of history to the fledgling career and Dan Thorne, Callum Williams, Josh Betley, backing vocalist Muzz and James Dodd who had learnt the set in just three days, respect where respect is due in many cases; especially in a group that provide the heat and passion so evidently missing from the skies above.
It is that rarity of the amount of people on the stage during a performance which gave the entire show its raison d’être, the swing, the hand on heart sublime beauty of it all and the melting pot of a well crafted machine purring away as if the night was being stalked by an amorous panther and whose very being was ensured to live long in the memory.
The evening, perhaps even the week, belonged to Ms. Wylie, the sense of sound and rhythm emanating from beyond the four walls of Parr Street Studios as part of Stillhet’s monthly Strings and Things, was beyond spectacular.
With songs such as Don’t Give Up On Me, the spirit laden Fighter, Love Me Right, the cautionary Let Me Down, Here With Me and Love’s That Real all making the set list bubble with excitement, it was no wonder that Ms. Wylie and her incredible band made more waves than an indoor lido being set to its maximum output.
There is nothing better in life than seeing the first tentative steps being taken and then seeing the blossoming and full glorious realisation by anyone who takes their craft and their place in life so seriously, but to whom the smile never leaves the face for a single moment. For Ms. Wylie, August 2015 really is the moment of fully rounded achievement.
Ian D. Hall