Liverpool will be forever associated with The Beatles, which is great, if you like them. However what wasn’t so great was the fact that for what seemed to be aeons it appeared that anybody who picked up a guitar seemed intent on replicating the sound of the Fabulised Four. This lack of musical ambition reached a zenith of moth-eaten mundanity with bands we will not name lest they beat us up or “cast” us as pariahs for such heresy. Suffice to say every time we heard a twanging Mereseybeat guitar emanating from one of the cities venues we quite frankly, wanted to eat glass and pour bleach down our ears.
Ironic then, that the most successful Beatles tribute band the world has ever known came in the dubious form of two mono browed simian siblings from Manchester who proceeded to strut the world stage with their stadium pub rock Beatles shtick, rather like two monkeys wearing nappies full of lumpy porridge. But that was then and this is now and the Liverpool music scene is buzzing again with a really vibrant and eclectic mix of exciting new artists, and there’s barely a “Love Me Do” or “yeah, yeah, yeah” in sight.
One band that’s making noises on the local scene at the moment are The Wild Eyes. From what we’ve heard so far they seem to be an exciting blend of Spacemen 3, Spiritualized and the Stooges. Their debut single “I Look Good On You’ was released last week on 7” vinyl (and is also available via bandcamp.) It’s genuinely fab and is more “I Wanna Be Your Dog” than “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” owing, as it does more than a passing nod to Iggy and the boys frenetic primal raw power than any mop-topped wankery. Yeah? YEAH (yeah!)