John Grant made a visit to Liverpool and the beautiful surroundings of Liverpool’s  Grand Central Hall was his stage for the night. This tour came not long after the release of his 5^th album “The Boy From Michigan” received some great reviews.

This is a man who pours all his soul and past troubles into his songs as well as digs as John Grant says about this album himself it’s “Childhood viewed through the prism of adulthood”  

Parking up in Liverpool on a warm Saturday evening it was nice to see this great city of music eventually coming back to life after what was a difficult 18 or so months for the live music scene in “The City Of Music” even this gig had been subject to delays and rescheduling but at last the day had come. 

Walking up to Grand Central Hall I could see a queue had already formed outside which I thought was a good sign.

First on stage in support was folk singer song writer “Teddy Thompson” who performed  a nice set of folk songs with a real country feel to them. This was a pure solo acoustic set, just one guy and his guitar which was received very well by the Liverpool crowd.  

Then the man himself came onto stage much to the delight of his fans there on the night. This wasn’t a sell out by the looks of it with a few empty seats up on the balcony and a bit of standing space on the floor. This did surprise me at first considering the queue I had seen outside before the show. Hard to explain why this was the case but the fans who were there made Mr Grant more than welcome with the reception.

His first three songs “Just So You Know”, “Boy From Michigan” (Title Track) and “Cruise Room”, all from his new album , were played with Grant mostly at his keyboard. Grants voice is an absolute joy to listen to and these three first slower songs set us up for a change in pace.

The tempo soon became  a lot quicker and more electronic with songs like “Black Belt” a real ear pleaser and beautiful synth arrangements and “Rhetorical Figure” were Grant hit some pretty high notes with his distinctive voice.

Grant then went into some of his back catalogue with songs like “Gray Tickles”, “Marz” and “Mike and Julie” all performed faultlessly with each song getting a growing response from the crowd.

The time passed so quickly, always a sign for me that the performance was good and before I knew it was all over. I have seen John Grant live now four times and each time I have come away thinking “That was a great gig” Tonight was different, I came away thinking  “That was a FANTASTIC gig”

Words & photographs: Warren Millar

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