Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Time is there to either be sacrificed upon the cross of our dreams or fears, or it is the guide in which we walk, unafraid of its own lengthy shadow, understanding of all it has seen, what it chooses to forget, what it decides needs to be remembered; what we do with that information is up to us, how we deal with a year, two, a decade of information, of good times, or reflection and possible answers is purely down to us.

Although Alan O’ Hare has been part of Liverpool’s incredible music company for more time than he might care to remember, it is with honour that the last decade has belonged to the realm of Only Child, for in the music supplied, wrought over, the pain and the pleasure of observations, and memories committed to song, the understanding of the poet within has shone through, and the city and further afield have been the beneficiary of the craft and hard work undertaken.

We mark time by commemorating the beautiful as well as the memory of what might have been lost, and in Looking Forward To Looking Back – A Decade Of Only Child, the needle plays and the cd spins in time to the desires and magic contained by the net of Alan O’ Hare and all the musicians that have contributed to the imagery, and once studied carefully, let loose to spread their sizeable wings fly across the air above in the hope they influence the people below to see their city as a gift.

For Liverpool is a gift we should nurture. There is no need to declare yourself an apologist for having even the smallest link to the place by the Mersey, and for the haters, the naysayers and keyboard warriors who feel hard done by because their lives are small and unedified, then look back briefly, take the words of Alan O’ Hare as a truth, and seize the means of improving your own place of worship.

Worship, an adoration, a reverence, that is what any poet or artist brings to their home town, to the memory of the people who walked the streets, who painted the town red and blue, and Alan O’ Hare and Only Child are no exception to that golden rule, and as tracks from a decade’s worth of insight and belief tell of tales, as the feelings ask the listener to imagine, so the reverence becomes clear.

Across tracks such as the sublime opener Lookin’ For A Song, the detail in Everybody Comes From Something, the love that comes in William Ralph Dean, the truth of Accidental Englishman, the fantastic North John Street, and Straight Lines, what comes across is that is not just Scouse that Only Child sing, it is time itself, the ability to make the past relevant, and the future pay homage to the place it came from.

This is the power of the poet with a guitar, this is belief of the listener as they delve comfortably into the images provided, a sepia toned, monochrome hatched, all the colours of the rainbow born and bred…this is the life of the Only Child, ten years old, and with the experience of a city behind it, guiding it, treasuring its soul.

Ian D. Hall