I arrived too early at the Jacaranda pub on Saturday night but found a local band in full practice session before their headline gig. The House That Jack Built is an indie rock band, sensitive to melody and as tight as a drum. I couldn’t get back to their gig but in their brief sound-check session they proved to be another band with great songs and skills - another one to watch out for.

Fly With Vampires was also a pleasantly surprising package. Liverpool is bursting with young rock talent at the moment and this one of the better and more distinctive bands. Good vocals and harmonies, matched to songs with strong pop sensibility, and great live - they deserve to succeed.

And finally, Yuval Bilgorai. He stepped in at the last moment when an act due to appear at Mello Mello on Saturday night dropped out. Yuval is a young singer/songwriter from Israel who is currently studying at Liverpool’s world-famous LIPA college for the performing arts. Hand-picked out of hundreds to study at the college, Yuval proved just why he had won selection. He is blessed with a fine, powerful and expressive voice and plays his guitar extremely well, using its percussive potential to the full. He needs to develop his song writing skills but he is close sealing that from the evidence of his strong performance to a virtually empty gallery - always a very difficult thing to do. A fine prospect…

So, how was it for me? I welcomed the opportunity to discover global talent and put ‘meat on the bones’ of albums I have heard. The ‘fringe’ clubs were the major focus for me, rather than the larger venues and acts. They did a miraculous job in showcasing so many acts each night. But I did have problems… My role is not to review the event but to review musicians, and in this regard little information or music was made available to me to follow-up on acts and music I admired. And what about foreign press and the potential benefits to the musicians who came to Sound City in the hope of furthering their careers? There were also far too many acts scrabbling for attention - well over 400! I managed to see a fraction of acts performing at Sound City, but would have welcomed music on record to take back. The Canadian contingent provided a ‘credit card’ with a  code to access download tracks from each of the acts that made the journey. And surely it would have been possible for record companies to provide personnel available to the press with everything needed to optimise media opportunities… Domino Records had several acts at Sound City but nothing for me to take away for review and/or airplay. In short, less acts and more information/music… PLEASE! Otherwise, for any reviewer Liverpool Sound City 2010 was the place to be.

Ed