The Fiddlers is not the easiest place to find and the thought of missing any of Ian's set had me worried. Fortunately a borrowed mobile phone and helpful Fiddlers staff managed to guide me in the right direction. The Fiddlers seems to have been built out of an old warehouse but is a pretty good venue for this type of show, and when you can stand right in front of the man himself you can't argue. The crowd was a little sparse but very enthusiastic and Ian seemed to enjoy himself as much as the audience. In particular everyone sang along with the oldies and listened attentively to the newer songs and it was a good mix of old and new . Ian's various effects pedals (as detailed on the new album) added new dimensions to songs such as "Stood Before St. Peter" and "Love Is A Wonderful Colour." The effects were also put to good use on "Little Princess" which is awesome live even with only guitar and vocals.
"Fire Inside My Soul" and "Child Inside a father" are resurrected from Head Like a Rock and an excellent "What She Did To My Mind" from Blind. "Merseybeast" and "I'm A Genius" are much closer to the "new" material and fit well alongside "A Guy Like Me," "Liverpool Girl" and "You Only Get What You Deserve." Of course we already know that these are even more powerful with the electric backing. It's easy to forget that there aren't many artists who can sustain a solo performance like this for over two hours and are also capable of rocking out with a full band on other occasions. Let's hope Ian is back soon with a full band. There were plenty more songs played but I was enjoying myself too much to remember them all.
2 November 1998.
This review Copyright © 1998, Jason Bradley. All rights
reserved. Reproduced with permission.
The right of Jason Bradley to be identified as author of
this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
[Back] to the Ian McNabb News Page