Author Archives: admin

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)

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The International Pop Overthrow is one of those occasions in the Liverpool music calendar where to just wander into The Cavern Club and take in some music for a short while is to be expected and roundly welcomed. The chance should you feel inclined to come off the street after a busy day of work or even the playful art of shopping in your attempt to make the day go past and watch perhaps half an hour of music before making your way home.

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

(517 words, 1 image, estimated 2:04 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)

Lexie Green, Breathe. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

You can only imagine what goes in the minds of musicians before the On-Air sign goes to red, the dawning realisation that this is the moment in which to shine or even fall, the many questions that buzz like pregnant Queen Bees and spawning more and more self-interrogations and pricking the conscience in their own self-defence.

Lexie Green, Breathe. Album Review. full post

(471 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Tori Amos, Unrepentant Geraldines. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The news that Tori Amos had hit a sort of wall in her music must have by-passed everyone who has listened to her music over the last couple of years and last few albums. Taking time to listen to anything she has produced in that time period can only lead to the scratching of heads and slight bewilderment at the thought. For in Unrepentant Geraldines Ms. Amos has produced yet again arguably one of the finest albums you will hear all year.

Tori Amos, Unrepentant Geraldines. Album Review. full post

(550 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Fargo: Eating The Blame. Episode Review. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenkirk, Adam Goldberg, Glen Howerton, Peter Breitmayer, Oliver Platt, Randy Birch, Tom Carey, Keith Carradine, Joshua Close, Carlos Diaz, Sam Duke, Barry Flatman, Eve Harlow, Russell Harvard, Karen Johnson-Diamond, Ethan Karlsend, Gordon S. Miller, Lonni Olson.

Fargo: Eating The Blame. Episode Review. Television Review. full post

(565 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Tori Amos, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Tori Amos, Birmingham Symphony Hall, May 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Expect the unexpected, anticipate the astonishing and most of all imagine the extraordinary, for when it comes to watching Tori Amos on stage you can do more than sit there and take in the majesty of it all.

Tori Amos, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall. full post

(557 words, 1 image, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Trevor Moss And Hannah Lou, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Being asked to support Tori Amos on her latest tour must feel in some cases akin to finding a winning lottery ticket from a couple of months previous and then finding its worth more than you imagined. Whilst there have been many over the years who have this very immense privilege of working with arguably one of the greatest in depth lyric writers of the last twenty years, none perhaps have seemed to enjoy the sensation as much as Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou.

Trevor Moss And Hannah Lou, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Evil One. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Geoffrey Beevers, Michael Keating, Gareth Armstrong, Nicholas Briggs.

If everything you knew about your life turned out to be a lie, how would you feel? If you had found out that all you held dear about yourself, the untold truths, the minutest detail of your very existence an elaborate lie placed in your mind by a master hypnotist who had somehow conveniently not reversed the flow of information to you and in doing so had turned you into a being so malevolent, would it be better to find out the truth?

Doctor Who: The Evil One. Big Finish Audio Drama Review. full post

(520 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Whiskey Moonface, One Blinding Dusky Dusk. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When you find something so entrancingly unique, so wonderfully odd and unconventionally offbeat you just have to embrace it, nourish it and hope that it stays the distance and others see the musical imagery on offer. It arguably doesn’t come any more unique than Whiskey Moonface’s debut album One Blinding Dusky Dusk.

Whiskey Moonface, One Blinding Dusky Dusk. Album Review. full post

(409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)