Liverpool Philharmonic Free Live Music Festival

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The photo shows some of the buildings at Liverpool’s Pier Head, it was taken from the Royal Albert Dock last August.

Today, my sister went to Greece for a week’s holiday. So, I’m in Liverpool to look after my 96-year-old mother while she’s away (mum lives with her).

Today the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall has a day of free live music, so I decided to go and listen to some of it.

Ian Tracey

I went to school with this guy; I forgot all about him when I left in 1973.

Around 15 years ago his name came up (I can’t remember how). It turned out that he is now a professor of music at Liverpool John Moores University and the organist at the Anglican Cathedral. He is a leading expert at playing the organ! His website is here.

I’ve been trying to see him play for years. Today he was playing at the free festival, so I finally got a chance to hear him. It was incredible.

He played for half an hour. I managed to get a seat in the second row of the stalls, with a view of his right hand playing the keyboard. God knows how he does it. The Philharmonic Organ sounded incredible, with sounds coming from either side of the stage. Shame he didn’t play for longer.

It’s easy enough to see him in Liverpool, he often plays at the Philharmonic Hall, the Anglican Cathedral and St Georges Hall. His website lists his engagements.

Philharmonic Orchestra

Next up was the philharmonic orchestra, they also played for half an hour.

I rarely get to see a full orchestra, and I really enjoyed this session. Listening to all the instruments in their various locations on the stage. The sound was amazing.

The Music Room, First Visit

The first two sessions I heard where in the main hall.

Around the time the orchestra finished a session of folk music was starting up in the music room. To get to the music room you had to leave the main hall. Both venues are separate. To control the number of people in each one, you are given a pass on entry, that you give up on exit. The queue to get into the music room was horrendous and hardly moving, so I decided to go back to the main hall to hear the orchestra again. There was a massive queue there now.

So I gave up and went to one of my favourite pubs in Liverpool, The Grapes on Roscoe Street. I bumped into a man who knew all about Fairport Convention’s Cropredy Festival. A festival I visited every year (17 of them) while I lived in Upper Wardington, less than two miles from the festival site. We had a long and interesting chat about music.

The Music Room, Second Visit

After a number of pints, I decided to see if it was possible to get into the music room as there was still live music there. It was, and it was not very crowded.

When I arrived, the stage had been taken over by various Latin American musicians. They played for around an hour, and it was very good. An excellent session that was very interesting, I don’t listen to Latin American music much.

Next, we had to suffer a half hour wait for the African sessions. It would have been nice if the wait was shorter.

The first African singer was Satin Beige, and she was incredible. Singing and playing a cello with her fingers rather than a bow. Next up was another singer, Cill. She was late and her sound check took ages and still had a minor glitch. I’d been standing and sitting on the floor for around two hours and was in pain and tired. So, I decided to back to mum. I did hear her first song though and it was excellent; she had a very good electric guitar player accompanying her.

The African session was titled Africa Oya, which is a huge festival of African music in Liverpool’s Sefton Park. It’s a free festival; I hope to be there next year.

The Free Live Music Festival

If they have another free live music festival there, I’ll try and go again. Only this time, I’ll stick to the main hall and the classical music. The music hall is out; there is no seating and being seventy I get tired standing for a long time. There is also a problem switching from one venue to the other. Once you leave one venue there is no guarantee that you will be back into either one.

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