On Friday 9th December 2022 a surprising development presented itself over the streets and buildings of Liverpool. Surprising because usually this particular visitor either misses us entirely or appears as rain by the time it makes it over to us. I am talking of course about Snow. This was the scene outside of the house in the afternoon prior to going out.. Because of course it had to happen on the day I was due to be out…

I’d say it was between 1pm and 3pm when the snow fell and it started with hail. Heavy hail, which gave it something to stick to and so.. it stuck. It was a few inches deep in places but what it caused was chaos on the roads because of course we were unprepared for it, as per usual. My biggest worry was falling over, as I have basically one pair of shoes that fit my feet and they are not the best in slippy conditions. – I otherwise love the snow and it was present to see it covering everything… Just had to be on the night I was going out didn’t it! Anyway, moving on I ordered an Uber and waited and waited and waited but eventually got to Town. The roads in town and the main roads outside of it were not so bad, very wet of course with the thawing, but clear for the most part. It was the areas of the pavement which had not been sitting in the sun that got it the worst. So I gingerly made my way down Seel Street to Peacock where I was meeting my friend and drinking partner for the evening. Made it without falling over while it being very slippy underfoot!

We had a drink in Peacock then made our way down to the Zanzibar for the gig. When we got there, there was no queue at all. We walked straight in, showed our tickets and got stamped. The venue was.. small. Intimate. If I had to compare sizes to something else, I would say perhaps closest in size to District, but older. The venue was.. largely empty. There was a lot of standing room and also some seating down the left hand side of the room. We got ourselves a drink and grabbed a seat. We were sat at the front, closest to the stage and throughout had a fantastic view of the band on stage.

The support act, a singer/songwriter called Mike Ryan (from the Wirral) was performing to the largely empty room. – It must take guts to get up on a stage and perform regardless of the audience size, but to do it to.. very few people, I dunno but I think that takes things to another level. It was only about 20 minutes till the main act “Just Radiohead” would take to the stage and unfortunately the room really hadn’t filled up much more. There were one or two more groups of people there, but those standing didn’t really get anywhere near to stage. There was still a lot of room left in the venue. The stage was a fair size spreading almost the entire width of the venue with steps up and down to the stage right. The setup was the standard vocalist in the front center, flanked by two guitarists (one of whom also played the piano) then a bassist towards the back right of the stage with the drummer at the back in the middle. The band had with them a lot of equipment it seemed.

They started playing and kicked off with a well known classic and we could tell almost instantly that they were going to be good. But the sound.. didn’t quite sound right, there was something missing to it and over the course of the next few songs, the vocalist had to ask for more volume on the mic several times. The sound engineers seemed.. Puzzled. But about four songs in or so, things seemed to kick themselves up a gear and it started sounding as it should have from the start. Being completely honest, for the most part it felt like a battle between the band and the sound engineers, but one thing is for certain, the vocalist can sing and hold some of the highest (and lowest) Thom Yorke notes. The guitarists & bassist can play and – for me, the drummer can play too. The energy he brought to it all was outstanding. Made a point of shaking his hand and thanking him after the performance. Extremely down to earth group of guys who seem to be doing what they do for the love of it and actually enjoy performing with each other.

They played a good selection of new and older Radiohead classics with the notables including ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, ‘Paranoid Android’, ‘Creep’, ‘Street Spirit’, ‘Just’ and so many more. The did in total play for around the two-hour mark as expected. I think they had the option to take a break during the middle but decided to just keep going with the set. I respect that. I think they could easily have filled that venue and I wonder if it was the weather that kept people away from this one, but I have to say, Town was generally a little emptier than I think would be normal for a Friday night in December. – I don’t feel this gig was too well advertised to be honest however and for a local group who don’t play locally very often I felt they deserved more of a Homecoming than the limited number of people in the audience could provide for them. I think they wouldn’t struggle to fill a larger venue such as Camp n Furnace if they were to come back and play Liverpool again and more often.

I have to say the experience of the night was a good one. Good company, good drinks, great entertainment and the audience was a relaxed one. – Never seem to find anyone causing any issues at a Radiohead related gig. Just relaxed people enjoying the music and themselves. I would definitely go and see “Just Radiohead” again.. In fact, quite possibly again in 2023 down in Stoke-On-Trent or even perhaps over in the Wirral… – Here’s hoping.