pete wylie review december 2000

The Lomax, 21.11.00
A more streamline Pete Wylie enters the stage, all grins as he announces the debut of his new Elvis-style shirt and with his Elvis guitar in hand the king of Liverpool is back. With only a few traditional cries of ‘PeteLoaf’ (I couldn’t resist) he launches into a short rendition of the Johny thunder’s song ‘Cant put your arms around a memory’ before speeding things up with ‘Never loved as a child’.

This is a venue made for Wylie, he’s no stadium rocker, he thrives on small packed venues where he can enjoy banter with the crowd. He tells us that he won’t be running around like that twat Robbie Williams to the crowds approval and advises us all to go out and see as many bands as we can, ‘it doesn’t matter how crap they are, it beats staying in and watching ‘Steps’ on Top Of The Pops!’ And with a performance like this its hard to argue, he goes through his whole repertwah including the eighties anthemic ‘The Story Of The Blues’, ‘Come Back’, ‘Sinful’ and ‘Disneyland Forever’ and the new ‘Your mother must be very proud’.Wylie flows from one song into another, interspersed with witty anecdotes.

One cant help but wonder why, with such a collection of beautiful and angry songs, why Pete Wylie isn’t bigger than he is. All the songs we hear are filled with pain but with a hint of optimism, what Wylie would call ‘optimisery’ and all the songs are sung with a passion that few could match. Before re-emerging for the encore, Wylie finishes with an emotional ‘Heart As Big As Liverpool’ which reminds us how lucky we are that Wylie was born in a city which inspires such passion, lets be honest, heart as big as Grimsby wouldn’t have had the same ring to it.
Gareth Kemp
You can catch him at Chevasse Park on New Years Eve