Tag Archives: (2014)

The Boomtown Rats To Perform at Liverpool’s 02 Academy This October.

After last year’s storming of the Isle of Wight Festival stage an exhilarated Bob Geldof said “It’s weird. I’d forgotten how powerful a band The Rats are!”

Others hadn’t. What was only meant to be a brief “re-grouping” turned into a triumphant sell out U.K. tour, a block-booked 2014 Festival season and now the announcement of ‘Ratlife’ the second half of The Boomtown Rats’ second coming. Taking in the towns missed out on their first jaunt and returning – literally by public demand – to the country’s major cities so thoroughly re-Ratted six months ago. Beyond nostalgia both press and audience agreed that those many classic Ratsongs had indeed stood the test of time morphing from the radical, upstart transgressive rage of the mid-70’s into tunes for the ages with a tragic contemporary resonance.

The Boomtown Rats To Perform at Liverpool’s 02 Academy This October. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

The Wellgreen, Gig Review. The Cavern, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow, 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The International Pop Overthrow would be an awful lot poorer if the abundance of great acts north of the dotted line that separates Scotland and England found themselves bereft of a slot or ten inside The Cavern over the seven day period in which the music plays lovingly down the ears of all who attend. In the year in which the key question of Independence for Scotland gathers pace, the music that the nation is proud of producing is still very important to both sides of that in question line.

The Wellgreen, Gig Review. The Cavern, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow, 2014. full post

(410 words, 1 image, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Sons Of Jet, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There must be something in the Merseyside air that draws James Styring back to Liverpool and away from his home in Lincolnshire. The smell of the past, the passion that still seeps out of every pore, every venue and the recapturing of the excitement that gave Liverpool the right to say with pride that it was and always will be the capital of culture, for James Styring and his band Sons Of Jet, that passion is something they capture with their music and the that long loved sound that is forever entwined in the Liverpool air, transfers easily to the flat country fields of Lincolnshire.

Sons Of Jet, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Midland Railway, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014.

Midland Railway at The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow, 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7 ^1/2/ 10

There is arguably nothing better than coming across a band with a sense of humour when the day has been filled with powerful meaningful songs, tracks that have exploded your mind and set the bran on a semi quaver rush. The art of the whimsy, of lyrics that speak at times more eruditely than the impassioned unveiled contempt and derision quite rightly aimed at those the general public are forced to stomach being in power, whimsy and humour is a very powerful tool and in the hands of Midland Railway, led by Nick Lote from Harbourne in Birmingham, the humour of the band shines through.

Midland Railway, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014. full post

(389 words, 2 images, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

AqPop, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014

AqPop at the Cavern Club as part of the 2014 International Pop Overthrow. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7 ^1/2/10

Liverpool is more than used to the music venues of Liverpool filling the local ears with contented understanding of its Norwegian artists who have made the city their home. It is one of the many strengths of the city that it embraces, not only the huge links between its Viking heritage and Scouse, but the immense influx of well-written and totally eclectic and narrative songs.

AqPop, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014 full post

(356 words, 1 image, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Mike Peters, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Mike Peters in Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Almost 30 years to the day since the album Declaration was released, Mike Peters found himself once more inside the 02 Academy and was greeted by all who wouldn’t let a rainstorm get in the way of listening to one of the greats of British Rock. Not greeted, lauded perhaps would be a better word, even praised and rightly so.

Mike Peters, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(856 words, 1 image, estimated 3:25 mins reading time)