On 29th November I bounced down to Barrowland Ballroom with my good pal to see the fantastic Liverpool band Cast that are on tour for their 30-year anniversary of their album ‘All Change’.
I have seen frontman John Power perform some songs at a free entry gig last year which was just the man and his guitar, this gig was more explosive however and I’m glad I got to experience it. Also seeing them supporting Oasis at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield this year was an amazing night as well as seeing Richard Ashcroft, what a line-up. I brought my pal along who didn’t really know Cast but was definitely a fan by the end of it.
They came onto the stage to a roaring crowd and the band started with the ever-cool sounding ‘Follow Me Down’, that intro got the people going. Cast played their ‘All Change’ album in order whilst swapping fan favourite ‘Alright’ to the end of the impressive package of songs. I was lucky to hear ‘History’ from the album and the guitar sound throughout the song has this spacey sound that sounds amazing live and sounded fun to play as the band were dancing along to it. As ‘Alright’ started to play, that Barrowland bounce came into full effect as fans were jumping and shouting the words back to the stage. What a feeling it must be to have a full venue scream the words you created back at you.
During the ‘All Change’ set, we were of course treated to their song ‘Walkaway’. Hearing this three times now live, it just seems to get better and better. This certain song live had my ears feel like the hairs on my ears stand up, like the ears of a Caracal, they tufted ears that funnel sound and enhance were like my ears, especially when it came to the guitar solo, absolutely beautiful.
John Power introduced their new tracks from their new upcoming album ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah’ which will be infiltrating our ears on their release day the 30th of January. The new tracks were ‘Way It’s Gotta be (Oh Yeah)’, ‘Poison Vine’, which will feature the legendary P.P. Arnold, and ‘Free Love’, which hasn’t been released yet so was a nice gift for the live gig goers. The new tracks sound great live too and the vocals of ‘Free Love’ feels like a John Lennon track and I closed my eyes during that song to hear if I was correct, I thought I was.
Cast then proceeded to play some tunes from their album ‘Mother Nature Calls’ which has one of my favourites of theirs being ‘Live The Dream’ which they also played, and finishing with ‘Guiding Star’ and ‘Free Me’ for their encore, as John Power and Liam “Skin” Tyson left the stage for the night, drummer Keith O’Neill and bassist Jay Lewis with a drum and bass outro that sounded insane. They then left the stage and the gig was over. The crowd loving the night they had and Cast sounding like caviar as always.
Long live the live music, man.