Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Bootle has not had the care and attention it so desperately needs. Sandwiched as it is between the culture capital of the country, the musical empire by the Mersey and the perhaps more genteel but nonetheless art filled Southport, Bootle is a poor relation when it comes to many things, housing, infrastructure, assistance, entertainment and art and it is one that shows every day of the week as people who live inside the sandwich make their way to almost anywhere else in search of the fix of culture and fun.
It seems beyond bizarre that this should be the case, with not even a decent venue to hold really strong gigs or theatre, relegated as they are too well meaning but growing ever smaller in numbers, public houses, being able to be found in the area. However for a brief moment and with very careful planning, Bootle, the town by the Mersey and to whom its dock yards and sea ports are a continues source of employment, arguably outshine its two neighbours as Round Sound Radio and Sefton Council hub on Stanley Road put on a show, a Battle of the Bands, a musical treat, a festival by any other name and gave the people of the area a much needed reason to come together and be part of something bigger than what ails the town.
Shakespeare once wrote, “If music be the food of love, play on”, never has a sentence arguably been more appropriate than on a blisteringly sunny day, almost cloudless, certainly serene to the touch, than as the one in which 18 separate acts thrilled the impressive crowd who sat on the old bowling green lawn outside the Johnsons’ Pavilion.
Music is love, regardless of the genre, it holds hope, a message that can be grasped in even the most narrow minded of imaginations and as the day took over, as each band and acoustic solo artist took to the stage, music became something greater, it almost seemed to banish the feeling of apathy, of despair that had been etched in the souls of the towns citizens, weathered by unemployment, beaten by politics and the butt of many a joke from its near neighbours; it became aware of the smile on the face of everyone who found their way to the lawn, breathed in air and remembered what it was like to care for the community.
Perhaps such a thought might be considered fanciful, whimsical and poetry driven, you always want to believe after all that people are happy deep down, yet if you sat, sober, attentive, watching the faces of those around you as groups and artists such as Cal Ruddy, Hegarty, The Jjohns, Choc Electrique, Billy Kelly and Mia Wakefield played their way through the day and into the evening’s growing dusk, you would register a change, a moment of internal thanks that had been missing for so long; this was a day in which you could understand the careworn feelings, of what being economically in the bottom ten places in the U.K. does to the soul and for a brief moment, one that must never be relinquished now that the match has been lit, the people of Bootle felt good about themselves.
To the organisers of the day, a thanks, a debt of gratitude, must be given, to Round Sound Radio who got the music together, a day in which has not happened in so long that it can barely be remembered, this was one of the great days of the year and it happened in a town of around a hundred thousand souls trapped between Liverpool and Southport.
Days like this must not be allowed to die, it gives the local populace a reason to be part of their community and relish being side by side with neighbours and friends; this is the power of music, let it play on.
Ian D. Hall