Venue: Pacific Road
Date: 23rd November 2002
[website]

Possibly one of the most awaited shows on the Wirral International Guitar Festival calendar, Nick Harper is amongst the crowd¹s favourite singer/guitarists in this area. Pacific Road is an ideal setting for him, a large stage, atmospheric lighting, excellent sound and an enthusiastic audience baying out at his every word or note. Nick's energetic (to put is mildly) performance was well received as he grimaced, and hit his guitar bringing out fast paced breaks of acoustic chord runs. His vocals, mainly drifting around the level of falsetto, wandered echoingly in and out of songs, and despite him having a sore throat it did not impede the high-energy performance.

At one stage he broke a string but continued to chant a single vocal line whilst restringing and tuning the guitar. The loud responsive audience greeted his every movement and sound with roars of approval, this guy is a hot act to have on any show. Once again the sheer diversity of Nick Harper's performance, added to those which have appeared throughout the ten festival days clearly showed why the Wirral International Guitar Festival is the best in the world, and why so many artistes want to play here - and do!

Review by
Maddie - November 2002

The place was buzzing from the start. Nick Harper has a lot of fans and the expectation at Pacific Road was red hot. The evening started when Manchester based singer/songwriter Chris Layhe took to the stage at about 8.00 pm. Chris was bass player with Icicle Works before branching out on a successful solo career. Chris' half hour acoustic set prepared the ground nicely with a fine array of excellent self-penned songs including My Wish for You, Man in a Hurry, Sweet Melissa and Drop of a Hat People. All the songs were well received by an appreciative audience.

A twenty-minute interval followed and the tension continued to mount. Then to a great ovation Nick Harper appeared. Nick's style is very much his own - powerful driving chords and a fine vocal range. There is plenty of subtlety as well and working around various guitar tunings the songs were presented with Nick's customary panache and energy. Nick has little trouble getting the audience on his side and this audience loved this performance. Even a broken E string part way through did not delay events - Nick simply carried on singing while re-stringing the guitar - is this man cool or what?

The set included most of Nick's best known songs - the audience knew them and expected them. Nick has a live double CD available at the moment (Double Life) that fully captures the essence of a high octane NH performance. During the evening he also threw in other impromptu pieces as the mood took him. Having said all this he was not well and was struggling with a sore throat but as with all great performers he carried on and delivered the goods.

Several encores concluded events and already many in the audience were looking forward to next time. The venue suited Nick's powerful performance and he clearly loves coming to Wirral. As usual the lighting and sound quality at Pacific Road was superb and absolutely second to none. Nick's own web site is being re-developed and will be available shortly on www.harperspace.com

Review by
Tragic Sally - November 2002

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