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Litany on stage at Deaf Institute Manchester

Litany – Deaf Institute, Manchester – Live Review – 17.6.19

When I was younger records used to come out on a Monday morning. It meant Sunday nights were like Christmas Eve every single week. Knowing that a new record could come out the next day and in three minutes it could actually make your day and change your life.

As Litany arrives in Manchester tonight it takes me back to that childhood. The pure innocent world of pop music. A time before teenage angst kicked in and you wallowed and cried in your bedroom listening to the Smiths. Every litany gig should always be in on Monday

On arriving at The Deaf Institute it’s clear that most of the audience are here for the Litany despite it being a joint tour with Yolk Lore

Just a two piece backing band comprising a drummer bass player and laptop make up tonight‘s live performance from Litany. It’s enough though. What we get is a solid gold performance taking us on high after high for 30 minutes on the dot

Beth Cornell is from Harrogate, but after the opening song she says “I used to live in Manchester, I don’t now”. We’re claiming her as one of Manchester’s own now

What makes this so special it’s a sheer ordinariness of it all. Not in a X factor “this is always been my dream” sense of the word ordinary. But in the Human League , Kim Wilde, Bananarama, Tiffany and Debbie Gibson sense of the word ordinary. A girl that just wanted to make it happen, dresses well like any girl that works in the office or the local and writes fantastic pop songs

You’ve heard about a lot about the songs before tonight on our Introducing feature in Sounds and tonight we are hear most of them. “My Dude” get’s an early outing a couple of songs and everyone is mouthing the words. “Call On Me” sounds even more like Ace of Base live. The one new song is “Love Letter” which comes from the same 80’s reference points as Bright Lights x2, nostalgic Casio keyboards in almost a stock Aitken and Waterman production.

Litany should go far