Tag Archives: o2 Academy

Nothing But Thieves Set To Steal Hearts And Minds At The Liverpool 02 Academy.

Following their storming live set at Glastonbury Festival (a snippet from which went viral at the weekend, with over 2 million views to date), Nothing But Thieves are excited to announce a U.K. tour, which kicks off in Newcastle on November 5th and comes to Liverpool’s o2 Academy on November 11th.

This follows the news that their highly anticipated second album, Broken Machine, will be released on September 8th via RCA.  It was produced by Mike Crossey (The 1975, Foals, Arctic Monkeys and Twenty One Pilots to name a few) and recorded at Ranch Studios in California.  The first single, Amsterdam, is currently on Radio 1’s A list.

Pavilions, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Even the most optimistic of music lovers are fully aware that to not see a band for around a year and expect them to play with the same consistency, the same richness that attracted you to them in the first place, could be seen as neglect, musical carelessness, a certain mistreatment. After all if human beings can change and grow then why not the artistic endeavours that we pursue. Those same artistic impressions can often lead to a downhill path, the choices made seemingly poor as band politics come into play and ego’s get bruised and battered.

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To sit infront of a young band who has come out fighting on all fronts since their inception and knowing that each time they appear before you, they just get more sleek, more smooth and unbelievably good is a feeling that warms the heart of even the most ungracious of hearts.

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.

Clean Bandit To Perform In Liverpool This October.

Following their recent sold-out U.K headline tour, Clean Bandit are very pleased to announce details of more U.K headline shows, which will take place throughout October and November. The autumn tour, which will include a date at London’s Brixton Academy, kicks off at Newcastle’s O2 Academy on October 12th, before coming to Liverpool’s 02 Academy on October 16th. Tickets go on general sale on Friday 16th May from 9am.

The Twang, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Any band that can survive the pre-Christmas atmosphere of The Rainbow in the area of Birmingham called Digbeth, a place in which poets have trembled and the packets of pork scratchings come with their own serving suggestion, will always surely go down well in Liverpool. The Twang exemplify the bridge, the mutual love in that does exist between the cities of Liverpool and Birmingham, especially when it comes to decent, well performed music.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Pauline Black Of The Selecter.

Every generation gets the music they deserve. As with politicians, it can be a blessing or a curse visited upon those growing up between the time of leaving junior school and the post teenage years and finding music either a godsend or hindrance to their lives. For those who just avoided the golden period of Progressive Rock and were not bothered with the happy go lucky feel of a three minute song that really didn’t have a message there was always Punk and Ska and one of the leading lights of the latter has to be the gracious lead vocalist of Ska favourites The Selecter, Pauline Black.

Medina Lake, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If a main act can be surmised by the company it keeps in the type of support it has on before them then Medina Lake should be lauded for being one of the most energetic, most lively and physically demanding bands of the last few years. The invisible energy that had been building up from the start with the outstanding Buckle Tongue, through the Fearless Vampire Killers and Pavilions and culminating in a cacophony of sweat, blistering power and a mutual admiration between rock act and Liverpool audience.

Fearless Vampire Killers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are mercurial substances when blended together seem to give the potent headiness that makes people swoon, scream with adulation at the very merest thought of having a hand touch a lock of hair and somehow make everything else in the world seem irrelevant; even for the briefest of moments. When the powerful aroma of burgeoning testosterone adds itself to the glitter of eye-liner, a theatrical moodiness and enough spray on pheromones to knock out the navigation systems of any passing passenger liner, then at some point those who made their way to rock gigs in the 1980s may have felt slightly caught unawares by the veneration shown by the crowd as the Fearless Vampire Killers made their way through their set in support of Medina Lake.

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Perhaps it was fortuitous that Merseyside band Buckle Tongue opened up their set in support of Medina Lake at the o2 Academy with the song Grow. For in the space of ten months that is exactly what they have done. Ten short months from a place in which they were already impressing those who saw them to a point now where surely they are a band to nurture, to grasp with both hands and say please keep going. Liverpool doesn’t really do the very heavy side of rock but judging by the adoration they received from perhaps even the strangest quarters in the o2, they are ready for bigger things.