If New York is the city that never sleeps then Liverpool is the city that never stops singing. To anyone who makes their way to any of the sheer multitude of venues, be it the dominant on the skyline such as the Echo Arena and first opened in full to the public and many a big band and big noise experience in the year that Liverpool was rightly emblazoned with the moniker of Capital of Culture throughout every event, to the small but significant and certainly homely such as Studio 2, Zanzibar and Leaf, to anyone making their way to Liverpool, not only is there a great set of venues to choose from but the music, home grown and much admired, steeped in history and more arguably more satisfying than anywhere in such close concentration in the country, is to be admired.

You could make a whole series of compilation albums to rival anything put out that once had a pig decorated on its front cover just by listening to a week’s worth of music and still not scratch the surface of what it means to listen to music from the city by the Mersey.

Trying to put together a virtual double C.D. of some of the great performances heard by local acts, musicians who have become more associated with the city than the place where they herald originally from or those that have made Liverpool their home, and thanks to L.I.P.A. more students have not only made Liverpool their home but have enriched the overall music output in the last decade than perhaps at any time since records from America started flooding the port and the clubs in and around Mathew Street, putting together such a list is Herculean and perhaps folly. However as Liverpool Sound and Vision celebrates its third birthday and having seen now over 250 acts in the seven years of reviewing music in the city, it is perhaps time to show what Liverpool Sound and Vision considers to be the best songs captured live in that time by bands and artists from Liverpool or who have made the city their own.

This is not a list of favourite bands, nor at times the best songs they have created and they certainly are not in numerical order but what they are, are tracks that have caught that tingle in the spine and made the shiver run deeper than anything heard by this reviewer in the last seven years and 250 acts; in short and in my opinion the best songs to have been sung live.

Disc One

1. Amsterdam                            (Liverpool Academy) Does This Train Stop on Merseyside
2. Science of the Lamps              (District)                   Fight For Him
3. Robert Vincent                         (Leaf)                      Life In Easy Steps
4. Buckle Tongue                        (Academy)                  Take It All
5. The Lightening Seeds,               (Academy)                 Marvellous
6. Jez Wing                                 (Leaf)                       the Doorway To Your Heart
7. The Mono LPS                          (St Luke’s Church)     You Make Me Sick
8. Mersey Wylie                             (Zanzibar)                  Fighter
9. Jimmy and the Revolvers          (Studio 2)                   The Weatherman
10. The Trestles                            (Zanzibar)                 A Drink of Water
11. The Sundowners                    (St Luke’s Church)   Into The Light
12. Steve Thompson and the Incidents (Academy)            Rainbows
13. Natalie McCool                         (Leaf, Sound City)     Black Sun
14. Dominic Dunn                           (Rodewold Suite)     Through The Streets
15. Elijah James                               (Zanzibar)                Perfect Death
16. Ragz Nordset                             (St. George’s Hall)     Mitt Hjerte Alltid Vanker
17. Steve McFarlane                      (Parr Street Studio 2) Somewhere Over The Rainbow
18. Stephen Langstaff                     (Epstein Theatre)       I Saw The Angels
19. Satin Beige                                 (L.I.P.A)                     Addicted
20. Space                                       (St. Luke’s Church)         Female of the Species

Disc Two

1. Kevin Critchley                         (District)                        Saboteur
2. Chasing Infinity                           (The Lomax)                 Hell Wouldn’t Have You
3. Paul McCartney                         (Echo Arena)                 Live and Let Die
4. Pete Wylie                                  (Zanzibar)                     Sinful
5. Mercury Midnight                      (Academy)                      Scream Out
6. Eleanor Nelly                             (District)                     Your My Reason
7. Gary Edward Jones                   (Camp and Furnace)      Mr. Lonely Times
8. Alexandra Jayne                          (Unity Theatre)           Clumsy Love
9. The Vinos                                (Zanzibar)                   Me and The Barman
10. The Southbound Attic Band  (St. Luke’s Church)  The Sausage Song
11. Katy McGrath                         (Kazimier)                    Three
12. Jo Bywater                                 (L.S. Radio)               Woollen Hearts
13. Only Child                                 (Leaf)                         Green Eyes Singing
14. Sophie Anderson                      (Philharmonic Hall )   Healerman  
15. The Icicle Works                         (Academy, Liverpool)    Evangeline
16. Matt Breen                          (Camp and Furnace)    I Don’t Know Who You Are Anymore
17. Me and Deboe                              (Baltic Social)                 Just Go
18. Black Diamond                            (East Village Arts Centre)   Stranglehold
19. Shamanarchy                            (District)                       What’s Inside A Girl
20. The Christians                           (Philharmonic Hall)          Forgotten Town

Bonus Track:  Amsterdam (Performed by Ian Prowse, Ian McNabb and Damien Dempsey)                                     The Cavern Pub Live                     Does This Train Stop on Merseyside.

Ian D. Hall