Tag Archives: Gig Review. Zanzibar

Maddie Stenberg, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When the bell tolls, the lightning strikes and the thunder finds a way to roll across the landscape and leave the witness in awe at the sunshine and the dripping sweat of Earth that will inevitably follow afterwards, it is always good to know that your gut instincts were right, that those who follow the artist through the rain and the youthful poise, will bask in the radiance that takes them onwards, that they will become the rainbow that heralds a music dawn.

Maddie Stenberg, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(436 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Gunmen Of The Apocalypse, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The ashes of many a phoenix has been blown and scattered to the four winds, the dust getting in the music lover’s eye and causing the bitter sting of regret and unfulfilled potential; to many a phoenix, the fire was not enough to resurrect them, the burning flame that catches the soul and gives it new life, simply went cold, started to fade and those ashes, they became another memory of what was, a golden bird in flight.

Gunmen Of The Apocalypse, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(448 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Maddie, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Maddie, Zanzibar, Liverpool. February 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The Romans used to be so dismissive of winter, so trivial was the meaning of the darkness, of what we might think of as the blues without the thought of sunshine and spring to warm our bones, their attitude was to lump January and February together, one big long dull month, one exceedingly long and bitter month with nothing to do but sit and grow listless.

Maddie, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(503 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Mountain Face, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Mountain Face, Zanzibar, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It seems implausible to the ear and yet sometimes a band that has a strength, a sublime sound and oodles of personality, is not able to get to Liverpool and perform for an audience; not for the want of trying, just that they have not been able to find the right place or perhaps the right thought in a venue’s bosses in which hosting them would be the right and the most excellent of moves.

Mountain Face, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(358 words, 1 image, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Erin Rowlands, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

You can plan your day, your week or even your life with the studious dedication normally reserved for the serious and the serial horse race gambler. You can study the form, you can see an outside bet that just comes across as being a terrific deal and one that blossoms in front of you, or even just continue to play safe and follow the absolute favourite around forever and yet from out of nowhere someone comes along and upsets all you know and perhaps believe in and gives a superb performance least when you expected it.

Erin Rowlands, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(381 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Eleanor Nelly at Zanzibar in Liverpool. January 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Holding back from praising an artist is perhaps arguably the hardest job when it comes to comes to reviewing, you want the whole world to see what you have seen for a couple of years, the flourishing and blossoming of a musician before your very eyes, you can’t wait to tell those around you just how good they are…but you wait until it’s appropriate to do so; it is only the right thing to do and they in turn reward you with a performance that is measured, controlled and full of illumination.

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(475 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Shaw, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The concept of moving away from a place where you may be settled, where the richness of your life is measured in local appreciation is perhaps an idea that some cannot face for the understandable fear of not capturing the soul of it again.

That feeling is universal, it breathes at the heart of humanity’s reason to find roots, to grow and yet if the chance is taken, if you move with belief then the appreciation for the artist grows and in Shaw, a young man for whom the south coast of England was his stomping ground, moving to Merseyside and offering his wonderful voice to Merseyside maybe seen as a huge stepping stone in his life.

Shaw, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Joe Symes And The Loving Kind, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool (2015).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If the rust ever starts to show in music from Liverpool, if there is ever a doubt to the sheer strength in depth available to the lovers of the well smashed drum skin and tumultuous cymbal, of the well heeled bass guitar being unheard in the darkening skies, that the possible mix of vocals, mournfully erotic violin and the hearty sax ever disappearing from view in the city that gave modern music to the rest of the U.K. Then the end is quite possibly near and the fifth horseman would be seen galloping down the Anfield Road with a backing tape in his back pocket and a karaoke machine strapped to his leather saddle.

Joe Symes And The Loving Kind, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool (2015). full post

(513 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Clockwork Eyes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

August has almost once more disappeared round the darkened corner and the obscurity that sometimes threatens to come with the September evenings as minds somehow turn towards the winter festivities three months too early, is racing with the speed of a timepiece set far too fast to cope with the chimes playing in the background. Yet through Time’s optical focus, a gig audience is able to see how the future might play out in years to come.

Clockwork Eyes, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The Bass Reflex, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

It most certainly is an art form, it is abundantly creative and dealt with in a manner befitting the electronic world but it always seems to be one that plays more into the hands of the dance floor, the club scene that that where live music is the King. To stand on a stage and take a laptop computer and remix songs which have touched the heart of the listener and give them something of a mashed up hybrid, a sense of the unenlightened and devoid of the song’s enormous power.

The Bass Reflex, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(441 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)