Space: Liverpool Celebrates
Pier Head, Liverpool
Friday 23rd August 2024
The August Bank Holiday in Liverpool used to be synonymous with the infamous Mathew Street Festival; the festival began back in 1993 as an extension of the annual Beatles Convention and across a 20-year history expanded into one of the UK’s largest free festivals before ending in 2013 due to financial constraints and a multitude of logistical issues. As 2024 was the 10-year anniversary of the final event, Liverpool Celebrates Mathew Street Festival was put in place, the four-day festival taking place on the city’s iconic waterfront, each day taking on a particular theme – Space were set to appear on the Saturday under the Liverpool Legends tag, however organisers wisely avoided the retro badge by inviting upcoming local bands to open up proceedings.
Headfeeder, who hail from New Brighton, the other side of the swirling River Mersey, seemed undaunted as they stepped onto the enormous and wind swept stage before launching into their abridged set. This young four piece are fronted by the gangly Will Robinson who pinballs the stage with a swagger that belies his relative inexperience, and fuelled by an ultra-tight rhythm unit of bass player Jamie Valerio and too young to buy a round drummer Sonny McGuigan – the band deliver an energetic set that pulls in influence from psychedelia, 90’s guitar bands, and arcs back to classic dirty rock ‘n’ roll. Its loud and its brash, yet at the bands core are well crafted songs that allow the flourishes from guitarist Ben Kynaston to solidify the bands identity, the music moves almost as much as Robinson does as they unleash Isolation their debut single, a ferocious riff beckons the darkness, drums reign down as the vocals grab you by the neck effortlessly showing that they have way more to offer than your average indie guitar outfit.
Space are a decidedly strange band, and for that we should be thankful – they were huge in the 90’s, a near constant on the radio and TV; they had three UK Top 10 singles, and shifted over 5 million albums worldwide, yet are often overlooked, I guess its because as musicians they refuse to be pinned down. The bands strength is their eclecticism – their ability to blend rock, alternative pop, with obscure film samples, to bring in elements of almost trip-hop, and Ganja fuelled psych topped with lyrics that take in everything from your local neighbourhood serial killer, lost loves, alien abduction, and social ills courtesy of frontman Tommy Scott’s vivid observational narrative.
Scott is as charismatic as his lyrical output, he bounds across the stage, his delivery is darkly theatrical, switching from 50’s crooner to acerbic rabble rouser in an instant, as they deliver a time constrained hits set – opening with 1995’s Money, ahead of Mister Psycho which had the huge crowd surging forward as they launched into the wickedly catchy Avenging Angels. It was particularly enjoyable to witness the return of keyboard player Franny Griffiths following a period of illness, this released bass guitarist Phil Hartley from an additional box of electronic tricks to bounce around the stage ahead of Scott’s self-deprecating “this is our cabaret song” intro to The Ballard of Tom Jones as he drops to his knees to deliver the warped paean to love.
The Morricone toned Neighbourhood was the bands second single, the lyric partially inspired by Scott’s upbringing on the Cantril Farm estate on the outskirts of Liverpool, an area described in The Economist as “A new kind of ghetto“, which collide with his depiction of residents including Mr Miller who is both the “local vicar and a serial killer”, before the keyboard refrain of Me & You Vs The World has the audience bouncing along, with Scott returning to the barriers, ahead of apparently concluding with Drop Dead as the Stage Manager waves frantically for the set to end – with the crowd behind them Space a ignore his protestations we are treated to The Female Of The Species which entered the UK Top 20 in 1996, the song was written about a mysterious lover who dabbles in the dark arts, and sees Scott once again delve into his crooner guise whilst referencing Kipling’s poem!
Once again Space deliver a hugely entertaining set, a set that welcomes you into their darkly twisted, quite possibly eccentric world, but that is exactly what we need in pop music right now; if you haven’t seen them since the 90’s then now is the time to catch them.
Space have previously announced details of their forthcoming Blood & Bubblegum UK tour (Dates & Tickets), the first dates being Fri 25th October – Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach before concluding on Fri 20th December with a home town show at the O2 Academy, Liverpool. Headfeeder have been confirmed as tour support for all dates.
Space online:
Headfeeder online:
Space: Liverpool Celebrates – live review
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