Category Archives: Live

Kathryn Roberts And Sean Lakeman, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Tomorrow will follow today, to think otherwise is to take the only thing that matters in the world to many people from them, the belief of hope. Hope is the reason why so many of us get up in the morning, hope is the point of talking in vain to the nice girl who smiles, to listen to that song, to relish an evening out when everything about the modern world screams to stay inside; it is in hope that the live performance by an artist is one that will captivate you and keep you alive inside.

Kathryn Roberts And Sean Lakeman, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Graham Gouldman, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. (2017).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Graham Gouldman at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. October 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Graham Gouldman always comes across as that kindly uncle who also happens to double up as the most interesting man in the room and finds time to have one of the sharpest song writing minds of the last 50 years. It is a moment of pleasure in your own life when you realise just how exquisite the songs that he has been involved in, across his own solo career, with one of the biggest bands of their time or for others, luminaries such as The Yardbirds or for The Hollies, nothing comes close to that feeling, nothing prepares you for the delights to come.

Graham Gouldman, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. (2017). full post

(437 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Jack Lukeman, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

You can hear all the songs in the world, you can find a way to lose your soul along the way, sell it for a pocket full of gold and exchange it all to listen to the songs of every artist for the rest of your life. However, there will come a time when a song that is hugely influential on the shape of the conscious of so many, suddenly becomes something more, more dramatic, mixing patience and urgency in the same breath, then for all the songs and renditions that have gone before, you cannot help but feel sorry for anyone who tries to top them.

Jack Lukeman, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Justin Hayward, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2017).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Justin Hayward at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, September 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

If music doesn’t move you enough to feel the cold truth of tears that run down your face, that if the art doesn’t make your heart feel the kindness, the brutality, the sensation and the despair that makes life such a gift to have in the palm of the hand; then perhaps it could be argued that you just haven’t found it yet, you haven’t found the moment which makes the tears of joy and pain of love mingle and gently swim from your eyes.

Justin Hayward, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2017). full post

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

Texas, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is the sense of power that a band can bring to the Philharmonic Hall which you could only wish that if bottling plants had the power, they might just have the sensation of the year, a sense of quality that should be available to all but in which seems to reside in those who have given their all. When a band like Texas come to Liverpool, the only response possible is to sit back, enjoy the ride and take note, for as all in the Philharmonic Hall were bound to say at the end of the night, this was a band who had tremendous fun.

Texas, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Thea Gilmore, Gig Review. The Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is always with a metaphorical warm embrace that audiences welcome back Thea Gilmore back into their live surroundings, regardless of whether it is with a full band or just on the stage with the talented Nigel Stonier, the welcome is positive and expectant, it is full of respect for the Oxfordshire raised musician and as the uncertainty of summer gives way to the chill of autumn, as the events unfold with dismay around the world, there is always the smile and the voice of a musically passionate woman to keep the home fires burning.

Thea Gilmore, Gig Review. The Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Elijah James And The Nightmares, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time was a new album or E.P. launch would be held in the frosted glaze of cameras and a hundred scribes finding a novel way to describe the happiness and pride in the room, the management pouring out champagne and the band assured a million dollar comeback; it was all colourful, it was cynical and it was never truly real. Under the façade of a thousand camera lenses lays one of the truths of life, that nothing is truly what is seems unless you witness it in all its beauty of the humble and quietly talented leaving a bigger mark on the audience than a extravaganza could ever achieve.

Elijah James And The Nightmares, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

The Mono LPs, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Vicky Mutch at Studio 2. September 2017.

Not everything in life is a stroll, often we take the great moments for granted and always use them as the bench mark of how we must approach a new setback or pitfall. If everything was a stroll then the way we see the way of solving the setback would be just like taking a step around a small puddle in the middle of the pavement, we would just bypass it with a blasé demeanour, it would nothing more to us than even breathing or staring at the world and wondering why it had become so dull and predictable.

The Mono LPs, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(498 words, 1 image, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Shy Billy, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Shy Billy at Studio 2, Liverpool. September 2017.

The change of name can sometimes reveal a different side to the artist, an altered state of vision and rhetoric down the microphone; the shift can cause the stage to shrug its shoulders and the audience to slowly drift off into the realms of memory and the once proudly proclaimed emblems on T-shirts, such is the trepidation of a name change, the question always asked, does it revolutionise the art or does it detract from it.

Shy Billy, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(379 words, 1 image, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Jimmy & The Revolvers, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. (2017).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It doesn’t have to be big to be clever, it doesn’t require the sense of razzmatazz, the three ringed circus, over blown sense of production or the hype to be the best; all anything needs to be to stick in the mind of the viewer of art, of sport, of life, is to be honest and forgiving, the sense of knowing that the time on stage is the most important feeling and to give it all in the pursuit of natural, beguiling magic.

Jimmy & The Revolvers, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. (2017). full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)