Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Give someone the chance to surprise you and they will undoubtedly take the opportunity provided and then credit it you when it matters, in their performance, in the way they stand up on any stage the world will provide, and then act with absolute decorum and pleasure.
We find ourselves in times that are extraordinary, and not necessarily in a way that is relished with glee or placed in the category of the special treat of peace, prosperity and growth, instead this extraordinary time is one in which we seek to undermine the future, that all the good work we have been challenged with keeping firmly in place is now ready to unravel; and this shows, despite the efforts of many a human soul, in the way we treat our young, that we seemingly seek to demean them, to not offer them support, to force upon them a feeling of being unwanted and not cared for.
We have been here before, and whilst the previous period of such heartlessness brought forth a revolution in music, it seems that we have now gone further in our determination to crowd out their thoughts, their artistic endeavour. Some though, such as the musician Steve Harley, understands that certain generations have allowed a distasteful state of affairs to open up, that they have had their chances in life and the success, and now it is time to start bringing forth talent like Mackenzie James Gregan out into the open.
A rare opportunity, and one taken with certainty and poise, one that would not have been out of place in the dusky nights of a Brooklyn cafe or heady brew of excitement generated by the lights and glare of a crowd inhabiting a happening joint in the Greenwich Village; for Liverpool-based Mackenzie James Cregan the moment was illuminating, a searchlight in that darkness piercing the lack of hope and occasion, one that was handled with honour and which left the audience applauding songs such as Fishing, Searching, The Place and the marvellous Woman From The East as though they had been a staple of the Liverpool music scene for years.
Give people a chance, allow them to be themselves, to be expressive and open their hearts, for the future will be desolate without such people as Mackenzie James Cregan on stage.
Ian D. HallÂ