Well for one last time in 2023 as Christmas approaches and the year starts to draw itself to an end, we don the review cap once more. This evening I attended the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall to see an evening of Live entertainment from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) as they presented their ‘Christmas Concert’. – Me.. at a Christmas event I hear you cry… Well yes.. The opportunity knocked and I jumped at it. I tried to arrange something for last year as a gift for close family, but as the time drew near for that one, the weather also closed in and the tickets ended up being wasted. So this year I thought.. why not try this one. It features LIPA Students, who we’ve seen throughout the year anyway…
It was an early start to an event – 5pm, and on a Sunday too, so we expected there to be children there and there was a couple, but not that many. – That’s another story.. But let’s start at the beginning. First of all we met for a drink at 1931, a restaurant attached to the Hope Street Hotel on er.. Hope Street. This is a place that we should have just two days ago been at for a pre-Christmas meal, but unfortunately late developments forced the cancellation of those plans. Having now been there for a drink.. I am kinda glad we didn’t go there for a meal. There is nothing wrong with – I presume the food, and it was a nice place to meet and have a drink, but really that’s all I thought it was good for, meeting and having drinks. I didn’t think a whole lot of the menu. So after our drink we headed over the road to the Quick Chef Turkish BBQ Cafe, which we have been to before and yet again they didn’t disappoint with some superb food and drinks. A good meal later followed by a traditional glass of Raki (hic) we made our way back across the road to the Philharmonic.
We had to queue to get in which was.. unusual for the venue, but we made it inside, upstairs via the lift (which we are quite sure goes down to go up or works on some other kind of magic) and made our way to our seats with just five minutes to spare before the show started, or well, before the 5 minute call for the show to start. People were still streaming into the house as the musicians were starting to warm up. As for our seats.. well as a pre-Christmas treat I decided to book three front-row seats in a Box. We’ve never experienced a box before so this seemed like a good opportunity to try one out. The cost of the tickets was decent for the view we had. We could see everything in an unobstructed way. (Although I think perhaps I need stronger glasses, as, I can’t see as far as I once could).
The lights dimmed and the LIPA Big Band sprung into life performing “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”, wow can they play… They woke up any sleepy eyes in the house as they rattled through six songs almost back to back, all featuring the LIPA Big Band with various Solo vocalists throughout. Standouts of this portion of the performance were White Christmas and All Alone on Christmas, though Troika was a fantastically played instrumental too. After the sixth song, the Host, Show Producer and Director of Music at LIPA, Martin Isherwood came on to the stage to welcome the audience and credit the wonderful performers we had previously seen perform. He made a poignant point about the sad passing of Shane MacGowan who was born on Christmas Day and welcomed special guests who were displaced Ukrainian families from their homeland.
Another five songs were introduced by Martin and belted out by all involved, starting with “Carol of the Bells” performed by the LIPA Choir, “O Holy Night”, “Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl, “River” by Joni Mitchell and a Fab Four Christmas Medley performed by The Savage Young Beatles. Music was provided through each of these songs except Carol of the Bells, by the LIPA Big Band. Carol of the Bells was a special performance, dedicated to the Ukrainian families in the audience and all displaced by conflict at Christmas. This was sung beautifully by the LIPA Choir and followed by by Caitlin Adonis, Haiven Sellers and Maria Tollisen who sang a chilling rendition of O Holy Night. – I am.. in no meaningful way Religious these days.. but that line “Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!”… absolutely spinetingilingly chilling.
Fairytale of New York was performed by Isabel Hudson and Spencer Elcock together with the Big Band and was performed well.. But they did adjust the lyrics which.. wasn’t true to the original, but I suppose it was an arrangement rather than a cover. Each to their own. I love the song, but in it’s original form. River by Joni Mitchell was sung by Mia Halvorsen and Katya Birkeland. These two performers would return to the stage later on in Act two and their voices seemed to perfectly match and offset each other. The Savage Young Beatles… I really.. didn’t like. They sang a medley of Christmas Carols to the tune and rhythm of Beatles classics… Some enjoyed it, I didn’t. Martin returned to the stage to introduce the next portion of Act one, which featured some seven different – very different songs. The highlight of this section for me was a song called “Stop the Cavalry” by Jona Lewie, a classic Christmas tune, performed excellently by Lynn Dossenbach and the LIPA Big Band – This was possibly my favorite overall performance of the night. The singer had so much passion for this performance and got the audience going as well as actually interacting with the musicians. Well Done Lynn!
A 20 minute interval followed and before long the company was back on the stage. Five more Christmas songs sung – and all by talented artists, but none of these in this portion really resonated with me as being stand-out performances. Martin then returns to the stage again to introduce two special guests – Peter Hooton & Keith Mullin of Liverpool Legends “The Farm” fame. They performed their peace anthem “All Together Now”, with backing singing by Tabi Gervis. This was a popular song with the audience and to be honest was possibly the best performance from the songs performed in Act two. Act one definitely seemed to be the stronger half on its own merits. Songs such as “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, “Happy Xmas (War is Over)”, “Frosty the Snowman”, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, “Somewhere in My Memory” and “I Believe in Father Christmas”. I Believe in Father Christmas was the second song performed by the duet of Mia Halvorsen and Katya Birkeland and was a delight in a sea of… normality. The final portion of the show was where all the ‘annoying’ Christmas songs lived… “I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day” by Wizzard, “Good King Wenceslas” by Jose Feliciano and “Merry Xmas Everybody” by Slade… Ug.
I should give a shout out to the drum line which made its way down the centre of the audience from the back to the stage at the start of one of the later songs.. I really can’t remember which, but I think it might have just been a musical medley. They performed the rest of their song at the front of the stage, I imagine uncomfortably close to the first row of the audience, but hearing raw drums like that.. always hits the spot for me.
It was at this point that a good section of the audience decided to.. get up and head out. – The part of me that wants to give them the benefit of the doubt thinks perhaps they thought it was the end… but the other side things it’s just a disrespectful act to walk out while the performers are still on the stage. The lights dim and in darkness, the recording of the First Christmas Day Broadcast by King George V, recorded in 1932 was played out. Following this were two final encore songs… Another performer walks down the centre isle of the audience towards the stage. This time he has a set of bagpipes and he is playing… “Auld Lang Syne”… That traditional ‘New Year’ classic… “Auld Lang Syne” and “Feliz Navidad”… I get.. tradition, but Auld Lang Syne… Ug it’s just an annoying song of Scottish origin that we English don’t really understand the lyrics to and sing / drunkenly sing at New Year… is just a song that I really cannot stand to hear these days, and Feliz Navidad.. well it’s fun I suppose. The entire company returned to the stage for their curtain call and what was left of the audience cheered them all the way through and off to the end.
Overall a good night of entertainment. Live music, performance, dance, singing… I enjoyed myself. Apparently my face didn’t register the enjoyment, but I did. Some of it was really quite relaxing. My favorites of the night were; Carol of the Bells, O Holy Night and Stop the Cavalry. Congratulations to all the LIPA Students who took part this evening, I wish you the best of luck as you head off next year into your chosen industries as Graduates. Till next year…
And from x40, that’s all folks. That’s another year.. a second consecutive year of attending events and writing about them complete. Something new is coming from x40 in 2024 so stay tuned for that and.. I can tell you I’ve already booked at least three events for 2024. Merry Christmas!
