LIMF 2015: Central Stage feat Basement Jaxx, Artful Dodger, Jax Jones and Anushka: Sefton Park, Liverpool

Basement Jaxx

As LIMF opens their main stage live music programme in Sefton Park, Getintothis’ Paul Riley takes in the spectacle.

Sefton Park on a sunny day is a pretty good place to be, especially on a cheeky Bank Holiday Weekend. After two days of events at venues throughout the city, Liverpool International Music Festival opened the main stage programme in Sefton Park.

Happily, miserable weather forecasts were proven wrong as crowds started to gather in the sunshine for a show including Juice FM DJs, Artful Dodger and headliners Basement Jaxx.

Opening act Anushka are Brighton-based duo producer Max Wheeler and vocalist Victoria Hart, who will soon release an EP through Gilles Peterson’s label Brownswood Recordings. They were a good fit to open the proceedings with Hart’s vocals providing a sweet counterpoint to their jazz-influenced dance grooves.

Next up was London producer Jax Jones, signed to Duke Dumont’s label and partly responsible for 2014’s #1 single I Got U, followed by UK Garage act Artful Dodger. With producers Mark Hill and Pete Devereux, the group had a string of tunes including Re-Rewind and Moving Too Fast. While both producers have since left, MC Alistair continues to tour, and performed all the hits, as well as a few numbers by The White Stripes, Oasis and Kanye West.

While we are slightly bemused as to what was essentially MC Alistair shouting ‘YO, LIVERPOOL!’ over other people’s tunes, we did enjoy Pendulum’s Tarantula. The crowd made the requested noise, and were up for a dance when Basement Jaxx took to the stage.

Basement Jaxx are two blokes with a large traveling battalion of dancers, singers and musicians. It is a live spectacle that showcases a huge number of hits that lean towards latin jazz and South American rhythms. Fantastical costumes, powerful, sassy vocalists and even a ballet dancer formed the troupe who played songs including Oh My Gosh and a full band version of Romeo.

Jaxx are very much a stage show as opposed to a live act, nevertheless they brought a live element to tunes such as Where’s Your Head At and Bingo Bango that made for a fitting end to Saturday’s Main Stage programme.

Pictures by Getintothis’ Martin Saleh.