Looking Forward to June.

As the madness of International Pop Overthrow Liverpool subsides it's time to get ready for June's musical adventures. These include Elvis Costello, a couple of Rick Wakeman gigs and Van Der Graaf Generator.

I also have a bunch of stuff to review from a couple of IPO bands,so hopefully there will be a bit of something for everyone.

Dave Rave at IPO Liverpool (videos from the Cavern Pub)

I shot two videos of Dave Rave at the Cavern Pub today.

The first one features Mark Foley on vocals for a lovely cover of Brian Wilson's Love And Mercy

And the second one is The Girl From Southport which they played for the first time yesterday.

Dave Rave at The Cavern Pub (Photographs)

Dave Rave and his band filled in a empty slot at the Cavern Pub this afternoon so I popped out from work to watch. I'm not sure the Tuesday afternoon pub crowd knew quite was hit them. Here's some photos! What a great show! (There's a couple of videos to come too)

Dave Rave - International Pop Overthrow Liverpool

Dave Rave has been coming to IPO Liverpool just about forever.He's always a crowd pleaser and has developed quite a following at the event. Also I am obviously extremely biased towards him as he co-wrote a song called Anne-Marie. Oh yeah, I'm definitely shallow enough to be swayed by things like that. (As long it's a nice song, which this one is.)

I got to see an early show yesterday as Dave and the band (Mark, Simon and Chris) filled for an act that couldn't make it. This was handy actually as it turned out I wasn't able to make the later show, unfortunately.

This year co-writer Simon took over all the vocals for Anne-Marie. I'm told I still sit and grin throughout the song. I'll have to work on looking blasé in future. 

It was a fun-filled set including the world debut of a song called The Girl From Southport. Chris, the drummer, heard the song for the first time via Mark's phone in the band room moments before they went on stage!

Dave has a new CD out and played a new track from that too. Expect a review as soon as I've had time to catch up with things.

 As a grand finale to this unexpected show David Bash, who organising all the International Pop Overthrow events, joined Dave and the band on stage for a performance of Let's Shake.

Surfin Lungs - International Pop Overthrow Liverpool (video)

Fun of the Pier and Honeybug- International Pop Overthrow Liverpool

I'm rolling the two bands I saw on Saturday into one blog. They have a lot in common. They both have lovely people in them and they both possess the power of bringing joy.

The Fun of the Pier set opened the event that morning and I can't think of a more pleasant way to start. Helen and Mark make lovely sounds and for this performance those lovely sounds were further enhanced by appearances from Dave of The Suns and Ni from Honeybug. This is what I love about IPO, friendships are formed and through an appreciation of each other's work things like these guest appearances happen.

Helen dedicated their final song, Inconsiderate, to me. Not because I am inconsiderate, but because I share their frustration at people who pay to get into a gig then talk loudly throughout! Mind you, I was, by then, also developing a healthy hatred of inconsiderate tourists standing in front of my table to pose for photographs, especially as it was fairly obvious had a video camera set up. Big thanks to Dave from The Suns for exacting a little revenge for me there! It made my day!

Following straight on from Fun of the Pier was Honeybug. It was another sterling performance from these chaps. It's still stunning to think how little time they had to pull this configuration together for the event. Mind you they are talented buggers! Lots of audience appreciation from our corner of the Cavern too! A perfect Saturday afternoon.

The Popdogs International Pop Overthrow Liverpool (videos)

The Popdogs were the band of the night for me! They were launching their debut CD Cool Cats For Popdogs which I reviewed at the end of last year. The songs already sounded like old friends and the performance was great. The band looked like they were having a great time and that feeling oozed across into the appreciative audience. It was a cracking way to end my Friday night at IPO.