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Fifty-six UK number one hits. No other city can boast can boast so many chart-topping songs and no other city, in all honesty, can throw a party crammed with such genuinely local talent. Manchester, Birmingham, London in this country and New York, Detroit and even Nashville lag sadly behind and didn’t our hosts for the evening, BBC Radio Merseyside stalwart, Billy Butler and Atomic Kitten’s Jenny Frost delight in letting us know.

Kicking off the proceedings, Natasha Hamilton and Cush gave a passable rendition of Cilla Black’s You’re my World quickly followed by Ray Quinn performing The Real Thing’s You To Me Are Everything. But this was not set to be merely a night of covers. The Merseybeats gave us Sorrow, Sonia gave us Never Stop Loving You and Atomic Kitten gave us You Can Make Me Whole Again and their charity recording of Anyone Who Had A Heart, which is downloadable for the cause. The Number One Project Live is intent on raising £1 Million for local charities.

Stealing the show, however, were Jack Roberts, who gave a complete, unaccompanied version of Ticket To Ride whilst shaving, before Andy Steele joined him on guitar to do the whole thing again in a voice that is just staggering in its diversity and strength. A little later, Oxfordshire’s Thea Gilmour did her level best to outdo even this with a slowed down, bluesey soul-filled version of Spin Me Round. “I’m here to celebrate the poetry of Burns,” she said above the applause. “Pete Burns,” and so she did with magnificent style.

As Scaffold lightened the mood and dragged the audience to their feet at the end of Part 1, so did Gerry Marsden do the same at the end of the show, proper, signing How Do You Do, the ubiquitous Ferry Cross The Mersey and, of course, You’ll Never Walk Alone, which went down better with some of the hugely partisan football crowd than with others it has to be said, especially as Gerry thought it wise to wear blue.

Judging by the entertainment value of the show, The Number One Project should reach their target with room to spare. With more number ones on the way, too, let’s hope its not another fifty years before another show of its kind is put on again.

last updated: 25/01/2008 at 12:03
created: 21/01/2008

BBC