Jamie Webster at Pier Head, Liverpool (30 Jun ’23)

My ticket

I went to see local hero Jamie Webster at the Pier Head in town, with fabulous support from Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band.

This was a rarity in that it was my second consecutive gig with My Beloved Wife, following Pet Shop Boys at the M&S Bank Arena exactly a week earlier, as reviewed here.

My Beloved Wife is a big fan of Webster, whereas I am not really at all, so feel free to ignore this review if you love him!

Before the show, we went into town with our friend Lesley, heading to the Royal Albert Dock for some food and a drink (a Brooklyn Defender IPA for me) from Revolution, then stopping by The One O’Clock Gun for another (One O’Clock Pale).

My history with the support act

This was the ninth time I’ve seen Michael Head live, after six Shack shows, one solo and one previous time when credited with The Red Elastic Band.

My pint outside Revolution

I’ve been a fan of his music for many years, thanks initially to my best mate Kris, who gifted me The Pale Fountains’ 1984 debut album Pacific Street (complete with four bonus tracks on CD) in August 1997.

He then presented me with Michael’s The Magical World Of The Strands from 1997 and Shack’s Waterpistol (recorded in 1991, but not released for four years) for my birthday the following year.

We got to see Shack in concert in January 1999, when they supported Mercury Rev who were promoting their classic Deserter’s Songs album at the Astoria on Charing Cross Road. That’s a fine double bill.

I then bought the Paleys’ second album …From Across The Kitchen Table from Sister Ray in Soho for £7.99 in June 1999, also buying The Go-Betweens’ 78 ‘Til 79 – The Lost Album from the same shop that day.

Later that same month, I acquired Shack’s brand new album H.M.S. Fable from Our Price in Richmond for £9.99, a day that also saw me carry a few other CDs up the hill to my flat, including a couple of expanded R.E.M. discs, ABBA’s The Visitors and Bummed by Happy Mondays.

Kris and I decided to see in the 2000’s at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, with the evening being headlined by Manic Street Preachers, but the presence of Shack on the bill definitely helped sway our decision. Feeder also played that night.

I remember that seeming a very expensive gig at £34.25 at the time, a fee I’ve outspent on seven gigs already this year, including this one. But, you know, inflation and that.

I snapped up Shack’s Oscar CD single from HMV in Kingston for a bargain £1.60 in March 2000, finally getting the third Pale Fountains CD (the Longshot For Your Love odds & sods compilation) for £8 second hand from the Music & Video Exchange in Soho in March 2001, along with a Josh Rouse album (also returning home with a selection of discounted discs from HMV on Oxford Street, including compilations by Johnny Cash and The Psychedelic Furs).

Kris and I saw Shack for the third time when they played the ICA in July 2003, supported by Tom Baxter, while I bought the new …Here’s Tom With The Weather from Amazon for £9.99 the following month.

My Michael Head collection

November 2003 brought me The Fable Sessions on CD from Selectadisc for £7.99, a busy shopping day that included a trip to Rough Trade and the much-missed Minus Zero/Stand Out! in Ladbroke Grove, as I purchased Echo & The Bunnymen and Television reissues, and new LPs by The Shins and Joy Zipper, amongst others.

The band’s final album … The Corner Of Miles And Gil came out in 2006, and I got it from Amazon in May of that year for £8.99, then seeing them in a free show at Pier Head North in Liverpool that August, with my mate Jon, whom I know through the football (and who is the reason I got to know My Beloved Wife). This ended a great weekend when I had also seen the mighty reds beat West Ham United 2-1 at Anfield.

The two of us also saw them at the then-Carling Academy in Liverpool in December 2006, having already witnessed a 4-0 thumping of Fulham earlier that day.

I finally managed to complete my Shack collection when I bought 1988’s Zilch from Amazon for £7.98 in February 2008 (having had a dodgy copy off another mate already), seeing Michael solo for the first time that July, when he was amongst the supports for The Farm at the then-Echo Arena, which I attended with My Beloved Wife. The Real People were the other act on the bill which was part of the European Capital of Culture celebrations.

The next time seeing Shack wasn’t until December 2009, by which time the Academy in Liverpool was now sponsored by O₂, this time accompanied by Jon and Andy, another football mate.

I then got to see his brother’s outfit The John Head Band in a free show at the Crosby Music Festival in May 2010 with Kris (on a very rare excursion up north), and a solo John freebie at the Mathew Street Festival in August 2011 in Williamson Square with Jon and My Beloved Wife. He of course had also been in Shack and The Pale Fountains.

Michael brought out his first new record since 2006 with the release of the Artorius Revisited ep (with The Red Elastic Band) in 2013, which I bought from Violette Records in November of that year for £8.

Then came the Adios Señor Pussycat album (from Amazon for £9.99 four years later) before Dear Scott_ which I bought in a package with a ticket for a gig at the lovely St Michael-in-the-Hamlet in Aigburth, south Liverpool from his website last June, for a bargain combined £29. You can read about that show here.

The support act

Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band

There was a massive queue to get in, taking us about 45 minutes via the single entrance for the whole site – not exactly ideal for a crowd of circa 13,000 people. That meant we heard, but did not see, the first song (Kismet from Dear Scott_) while navigating our way in.

We made our way to a decent position, with Lesley returning from the bar with a welcome can of Red Stripe each.

It was great seeing Head again, although a rainy outdoor festival isn’t the ideal setting for them, or indeed anyone really.

An early highlight was Broken Beauty off the last album, which was my record of the year in 2022, with that LP being raided a few times for this show.

Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band with Joanne Head

The second half of the set was very Shack-heavy, starting with Daniella from H.M.S. Fable, with Michael’s sister Joanne Head singing, while Martin Smith (?) played some nice, muted trumpet.

As she left the stage, she let out a very loud “fuck the Tories”, in keeping with the tone of the evening.

Michael Head

Two more Fable tunes (the deathless Streets Of Kenny and Comedy) bookended Meant To Be off …Here’s Tom With The Weather.

Kenny is surely the most beautiful song ever written about serious drug addiction. It’s certainly a smoother listen than Cold Turkey.

In between bands, the DJ pulled out some bangers that got the crowd singing along en masse, including The La’s (yes, that song), The Jam’s Town Called Malice and Dexys (again, you know the one it was).

 

My history with the headliner

All of the Webster in our household has been gifts from me to My Beloved Wife, starting with debut album We Get By for Christmas 2020, then Moments with a bonus disc of Liverpool FC songs (Boss Live At The Olympia!) for our wedding anniversary in July 2022.

Our Jamie Webster collection

I actually got to see him play live before My Beloved Wife, as he was a surprise guest on the bill of a charity show at Furnace in September 2022 being headlined by The Libertines, which you can read all about here. On that occasion he stuck to his debut album, playing five numbers from it.

My Beloved Wife headed to the M&S Bank Arena last November, when he became the second solo scouser to sell out the venue, after a certain Paul McCartney. I gave her the double live album recorded at that show for Christmas last year.

The main event

As previously mentioned, I’m not really much of a fan of Webster, partly because I find his voice a little uninspiring. He clearly has a fair amount of taste though, having duetted with Billy Bragg on his Never By The Sun at the aforementioned Arena show, with that set also including covers of The Beatles and Talking Heads.

However, he delivered a set that had the crowd entirely ignoring the on-off pouring rain, with a very high amount of singing along and crowd chanting.

Jamie Webster

He kicked off with Going Out, with the sound suffering a bit from some rather muffled-sounding drums from Ian Skelly of The Coral, which did improve somewhat as the set progressed.

The first (red, natch) flare was let off during Days Unknown, another tune from Moments.

Living From Yesterday from the debut album featured some nice guitar licks from Webster’s school-mate Danny Murphy.

Jamie Webster

Next up was my favourite song of his, Davey Kane from Moments, which always reminds me of Arctic Monkeys. There’s also been another influence on it nagging away at the back of my mind, which Lesley brought into focus by mentioning spaghetti westerns: you can hear some Ennio Morricone in there too.

Across the evening, I think he played ten of We Get By’s twelve cuts, and eight of the ten Moments songs.

A run of five from We Get By followed brand new ‘single’ Voice Of The Voiceless, a continuation of his socially conscious songwriting.

James Skelly with Jamie Webster

Another flare was lit during a lengthy chant of “fuck the Tories”, with Skelly’s drums helping to keep things on track.

Talking of Skelly, we got a real treat when Ian’s older brother James Skelly was brought on to sing The Coral’s Dreaming Of You, a Top 20 hit in October 2002. Here it is:

North End Kid from Moments saw someone in the crowd take inspiration from its lyrics to throw Webster a rose:

“Where there’s music in the street the crowd are throwing roses at his feet”

I’ve always assumed Knock At My Door was about Boris Johnson, but I guess the specific Tory politician isn’t really the point:

“The TV is broke, there’s a pale fat joke on the news. He’s talking shit again.”

Danny Murphy had a guitar solo feature in What More!? before the second special guest, Brooke Combe, who seems to always join Webster for Talking Heads’ This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody). She’s Scottish but has recorded in Liverpool with James Skelly.

Jamie Webster

I love this song (as indeed pretty much everything the Heads ever did), but I’ve always found this a curious choice of cover as it’s so different from Webster’s usual material – but perhaps that is the point.

It was the closing track on 1983’s Speaking In Tongues, becoming the second single off that LP, only hitting #51. It later peaked at #100 as a single off the live Stop Making Sense album.

Amazingly, despite failing to breach the Top 40, that single was apparently certified Silver in the UK, meaning it sold at least 200,000 copies. Different times!

To give everyone their due, the rest of the band was Jake Fletcher on keyboards, who has played with the likes of Paul Weller and The Specials, and bassist Tim Cunningham from The Sundowners.

There was time for one more song in the main set, the title track to We Get By.

The encore kicked off with a version of In My Life from Rubber Soul, which I didn’t think worked as well as the previous covers. He’d done Blackbird when headlining the Arena last year, which highlighted just how tricky Macca’s guitar part is.

He then rolled out his two biggest hitters, both from We Get By: This Place and Weekend In Paradise. To say the crowd were loving it would be an understatement, as fireworks headed into the sky at the close of the evening.

Gerry And The Pacemakers’ Ferry Cross The Mersey filled the air as we started to make our slow way to the exit.

My t-shirt

Tonight’s t-shirt

In honour of the fabulous support act, I wore my red Shack t-shirt. There were quite a few Webster tees (and a whole load of bucket hats!) on show.

However, the only one I spotted for anyone else was a John Lennon one, disappointingly.

There were lots of “fuck the Tories” bucket hats in evidence, some official Webster merch and some definitely not as there seems to be a thriving cottage industry in these now, at least here!

My Beloved Wife was sporting a t-shirt emblazoned with “never trust a Tory”, so was very much on message as well.

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Playlist

Here is much of the music from the night on Spotify: