Crowd salutes city hit parade
Jan 21 2008
by Richard Down, Liverpool Daily Post
A STAGE crammed with Liverpool’s best-known musicians has launched the city’s latest assault on the charts in a sold-out charity concert.
More than 10,000 fans packed the Echo Arena Liverpool to witness a roll call of the city’s number one hits on Saturday.
An eclectic mix of performers ranged from long-standing favourites Gerry Marsden, of Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Farm and China Crisis to relative newcomers X-Factor’s Ray Quinn and Eaton Road.
Other artists performing on the night included Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Nasher, Connie Lush, Amsterdam, Ian McNabb, Sonia, Towers of London, Anthony Hannah, Shack, Billy Fury's band the Tornados, The Real People, Scaffold, Thea Gilmore, featuring Mike Cave, Thomas Lang, and the cast of Hollyoaks.
Backstage, the gathering was dubbed “Liverpool’s biggest-ever cabaret” by The Farm’s Peter Hooton.
The whistle-stop tour of the city’s musical history launched the latest attempt to land Liverpool a chart-topping single with a cover of Cilla Black’s Anyone Who Had a Heart, by multi-platinum selling girlband Atomic Kitten.
Singer Liz McClarnon said: “The fact we’ve been able to do this gig in Liverpool means the world to us.”
“We’re just very proud to have appeared on the bill,” added Jenny Frost, returning after a year-long break for a baby.
“The support out there was amazing and we would love it if Liverpool got behind us and paid their 75p to download the single.”
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Their release on January 28 is the brainchild of Atomic Kitten manager Martin O’Shea, and has long been billed as an attempt to earn the 57th number one for Liverpool in the Capital of Culture year.
But Dr and The Medics frontman Clive Jackson nearly missed out when researchers forgot he came from Liverpool.
He told the Post: “It’s not a secret that I’m from Liverpool, so I was a little bit offended to be missed out.
“It was only when fellow band member Paul Nevin heard it on Radio 2 that we got in touch and I sent my original birth certificate.
“They were kind enough to let us play here tonight and the event has been fantastic, everyone’s done such a good job – except the researcher who forgot about us!”
An emotional ending to the concert saw Gerry Marsden lead the audience in a full-blooded version of You’ll Never Walk Alone, and backstage he said: “That was the best I’ve ever heard it. Tonight was the greatest gig in the world.”
All proceeds will be distributed among six of the city's leading charities; The Liverpool Echo Sunrise Fund, The Marina Dalglish Appeal, Alder Hey Imagine Appeal, Marie Curie Hospice Liverpool, Radio City's Give A Child A Chance, and Radio Merseyside's Charitable Trust.
richarddown@dailypost.co.uk
Source:
Liverpool Daily Post
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