Not Many Experts

Tall Ships provided the heartbreaking moment of the festival and even were single-handedly responsible for making my festivaling comrade cry (he claims it was simply the man menopause again) as their front-man miserably closed his case of unsold vinyl after just 10 fruitless minutes. The lack of people wading into their wallets was actually hugely surprising, as the band had just ripped through a spellbinding set of intricate and yet hugely appealing math-rock. Take the precision, passion and intelligence of Foals, remove their huge popular appeal, and replace it with the confusion and avant-garde of Battles and there you have Tall Ships. I sound enthusiastic and sympathetic, but to be fair, I didn’t buy one of their vinyl either (please don’t judge me). Give them some time to find their audience and they’ve got the sort of rare experimental appeal to actually sell quite a lot of records to quite a lot of quite infatuated fans. And we might even crack the wallet out ourselves.

Hit The Floor by Tall Ships

Tall Ships – Chemistry by Tall Ships

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It would be easy to construct a case for Liverpool having gone through a musical revolution in the past few years, sort of like the Egyptian revolution, just with fewer camel charges and more burnt down venues. (In fact, so easy would it be to make a case that that’s exactly what Getintothis did, and very, very well, too) Mere years ago young & old people from the city gifted with discerning music taste floated the city hoping for the announcement of gigs from the bands of the day who’s tours seemed to travel the entire country, whilst skilfully circumventing Liverpool as if it were a foreign country or leper colony.

Things have changed. The many, many contributory reasons are cross-examined in far more comprehensive detail than I am able to at the link above, but without a doubt, the ascendancy of Liverpool Sound City has a lot to answer for. In a good way. The success of the festival itself is complex and, frankly, irrelevant, but a diverse and exciting line-up, along with venues crammed with character and the successful organisation and structure have much to do with it. As a result, all of the right tour managers, promoters and bands have been passing through Liverpool; and the festival itself has provided an excuse for the city’s ears to drag their friends into a slightly less mainstream world of music.

This year, again, will provide an opportunity for this process to continue, and if the announcement of the first acts are anything to go by (which… they are, of course) then it looks like the success of the festival itself is beyond doubt this year. Below is a deliciously listenable compilation of our picks from the first announcements, but before we go, it’s worth mentioning that this year the dramatic decision has been made to make all shows wristband-only shows which… may or may not be a good decision, we’re no experts (no pun intended) and it is unimportant – from May 19th many of the most promising names in music shall be in Liverpool, so bring your camels, comrades – it looks a lot like this particular “revolution” is continuing for another year, at least.

Wristbands are cheaper than 11 double cheeseburgers from Hardman’s at £35, until March 1st when, presumably, the price will go up. So if you’ve already pre-ordered The King of Limbs, then what could you possibly be waiting for? Water is free on tap by law and  food is a bit of an unnecessary luxury so get cracking.

Tracks after le jumpe, comrades.

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