Ian McNabb
Irish Center
Digbeth, Birmingham

The Irish Centre Shook

Review by Paul Cole

With photos of Liverpool, Lomax L2 Show by Shazia

IT'S been five years since Liverpool songwriter Ian McNabb toured with an electric band. And whilst his unplugged solo stints have been memorable, there has been something missing.

Balls. Of the rock'n'roll variety.

Friday night saw the former Icicle Works frontman crank up the amps and unleash a blistering set of songs which assumed Springsteen-like proportions as it stretched towards the three-hour mark.

This was McNabb as nature surely intended. Soaring melody, addictive hooks, rock riffs and thundering drums ? with good-humoured banter and Scouse wit thrown in.

The Irish Centre shook, rattled and rolled as he served up songs past, present and future, spanning his career from "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)" to the as yet unrecorded "No Way To Behave."

"Hollow Horse," "Love Is A Beautiful Colour" and "Evangeline" were crowd-pleasers. The fans sang themselves hoarse as if in rehearsal for tomorrow's Nationwide play-offs.

The show was stolen, however, by a powerful "Child Inside A Father" the Neil Young-influenced epic taken from McNabb's Mercury-nominated Head Like A Rock album.

Other highlights included a semi-plugged "Out Of Season" and "Still Got The Fever" and, surprisingly, "What You Wanted" an average song on album but here a rock barnstormer.

Throughout the gig, McNabb acknowledged his roots, throwing in dashes of The Byrds "Eight Miles High", the Stones "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and The Who's "Magic Bus" for the hell of it.

It all ended as sated fans sang "You Stone My Soul." They were still singing as midnight approached and McNabb had left the stage. Rock doesn't come any better than this.

Paul Cole
Deputy Editor, Sunday Mercury, Birmingham