Category Archives: Live

Wille And The Bandits, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Wille and the Bandits at the Music Rooms in Liverpool. March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The equinox may turn and gift us the power of more sunlight in which the refuge of the day we seek but it is still in the apparent darkness, the illuminated room and the hum of electricity in which we come alive and warm ourselves in the company of the like minded, the curious and the players, those who are there to capture our hearts and drive the whispers of beige away into the furthest reaches and corners of our minds.

Wille And The Bandits, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool. full post

(483 words, 1 image, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Paloma Faith, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is with the ferocity of a warrior’s heart to which we acknowledge that the world is not right, that it has always had its priorities wrong and the sense of balance that we are urged to seek to uphold the so called natural order, is nothing but a misaligned scale, weighted in the favour of the few, prejudiced by decisions taken long before we even had the chance to understand.

Paloma Faith, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The Stranglers at the Liverpool Academy, March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

The next time the Beast from the East decides to make an appearance on Britain’s shores, the best form of defence against this cyclonic severe cold and snow would be to tap the resources of a room full of Stranglers fans and then allow the heat to pour out onto the streets in the surrounding areas; the cold of the last few weeks would not have stood a chance as they took in the sounds of a band still rightly considered, the definitive article.

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2018). full post

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

Therapy?, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Therapy at the o2 Academy in Liverpool, March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

You can over analyse and seek treatment for almost anything, the small ailment through to the overriding sense of disassociation of the age, healing comes with talking and yet there is only one suitable cure for the way the world has turned, and a night of Therapy? is always the best of the Doctor’s orders.

Therapy?, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(450 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Stick In The Wheel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Stick In The Wheel at the Music Rooms of the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Pursue the secrets of the inscription long enough and you will find hope, salvation of spirit, or if you are fortunate and the gods of the quest are with you, another adventure in which to delve straight into, to place your trust into the symbols, gestures and lyrical sense of groove in which the hardiest of explorers light and a candle, pull back the veil and shout from the heavens that it is a marvel to behold and that you should Follow Them True.

Stick In The Wheel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool. full post

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

The Bad Flowers, Gig Review. Asylum 2, Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Bad Flowers at Asylum 2, Birmingham. Photograph reproduced with kind permission by Mark Varney and Noble PR.

If you are not ready, focused and with your eyes trained on the 10 yards beyond the finishing line then no matter how hard you try, you won’t hear the Starting Gun and before you know it that finishing line has been reached and the possible enjoyment, the statement of intent and your mark upon the world has been sabotaged by your own reluctance to see how great you could have been.

The Bad Flowers, Gig Review. Asylum 2, Birmingham. full post

(502 words, 1 image, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Those Damn Crows, Gig Review. Asylum 2, Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Those Damn Crows at Asylum 2, Birmingham. February 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The dragon lives long and breathes fire that catches everything around it alight, the initial spark that comes from the belly of the beast is soon glowing furnace hot and finds a way to demonstrate its wrath. The anger at having been penned in by a society that understands nothing of why the burning issues of the day are important, why just because one person is doing alright, that another should be ridiculed and shamed for not being able to see above the shoulders of those above them.

Those Damn Crows, Gig Review. Asylum 2, Birmingham. full post

(488 words, 1 image, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Go West And Nik Kershaw, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If you can remember the 80s with a glorious smile and the passion of a beating heart rampaging through single after single of dominating pop and the explosion of culture that surrounded it, then you are one of that rare breed that wasn’t hemmed in and surrounded completely by the post-war early boom of rock and roll and neither were you fooled by the arrival of the almost far too beautiful but in some eyes sulky, almost akin to drama filled, 90s that followed.

Go West And Nik Kershaw, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(597 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Cutting Crew, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Time changes almost everything, fashion is lauded and then debunked in the blink of an eye, ideologies are stamped upon, new regimes of popularity take the clothes off the previous holders of the once admired and trend setting and claim that they thought of it first; time changes everything but the respect due to a band to whom can hold an audience’s attention and give them the insight into what made their music impossibly beautiful.

Cutting Crew, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Paul Carrack, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Paul Carrack at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, February 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Unless you are part of the esteemed Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, you don’t see that many musicians performing a two night stand at the prestigious venue; it isn’t that it is not the done thing, it just happens that way, performers take to the stage, they give the audience the respect they are due and the harmony of expression and hopeful love, then they move onto the next town, perhaps only stopping to take a look at the city in daylight hours, rekindling a memory of their own before the bus and their equipment drives on.

Paul Carrack, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(543 words, 1 image, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)