Lizzo's 2014 performance at the Shipping Forecast on Slater Street during Liverpool's Sound City festival is remembered by those who witnessed it as the moment a future global star was born. The event took place in May 2014, before her rise to fame with hits such as Truth Hurts, Good as Hell and About Damn Time.
A Night in the Basement
Neil Atkinson, host of the Anfield Wrap podcast, was among the audience that night. He told the ECHO: "I was well aware we were seeing someone who was bigger than the event, even at that point in her career, she was bigger than the venue, bigger than the number of us who were there, because that's sometimes what you used to get at Sound City."
Atkinson recalled the energy of the gig: "It felt a little bit incongruous in and among Sound City, but it was still really, really cool and I remember it being a really good gig, tonnes and tonnes of energy."
He described a memorable moment: "At one point, she asked for a male volunteer from the audience, and some lad was sort of pushed into getting up. When he was up there, he got tied down with feather bows and danced with, in a bit of a Janet Jackson style way."
Audience Reactions
Stuart Mather from Wirral, who attended with Atkinson, said: "I remember that Neil and I went together. I think we had colluded beforehand that we were going to check her out because we had both either listened to her first album, Lizzobangers or we had been playing her song Batches & Cookies to death."
Mather described the performance: "There was no stage. She was literally standing there with a semicircle of an audience around her. She was sensational and an absolute charisma machine. We all just sort of left thinking how incredible it was. You could tell that she was a superstar in the making."
Mark Keeley, who was in the audience with his wife, added: "Her attitude and brashness added to her obvious talent was all there in the live performance from the start."
Sound City's Legacy
Sound City has hosted several artists before their rise to fame. Managing director Becky Ayres said: "We also had Ed Sheeran playing in Bumper, which was on Hardman Street, Fontaines D.C. played in Cains Brewery, Sam Fender played in On Air."
Ayres added: "Sound City has always been the reason why a lot of these artists have come to Liverpool, because we book them and we just saw something in them."
Mather reflected on the experience: "It is interesting because I was at Glastonbury in 2023 and I was walking past the stage with a bunch of mates and saying that I saw her in the basement of a pub about 10 years ago, which was pretty mad."
He concluded: "I am sure there have been other people on the Sound City line-ups that have gone on to be global megastars, but Lizzo in 2014 was quite something."
