Category Archives: Live

The Huyton Minstrel, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is not just Bootle that can be seen as being forgotten in many ways by the higher powers that be, the area of Huyton, as well as other places in the North West and those beyond the remit of the Westminster village, has also suffered and its people, those who work in the on-going rejuvenation of Liverpool, must at times wonder when is it their turn and who really speaks for them, what weaver of words is their lauded king or queen to make the area stand up for itself.

The Huyton Minstrel, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

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

Interrobang, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Interrobang performing in Bootle, July 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The air is punctured, the big bang of the angry, cross and disillusioned comes out across the scene of serenity with truth galloping beside it at such a rate of knots that it is possible to feel the strength of rightful bitterness as if it were a tornado, a hurricane on the verge of demolishing the insidious and the crass, the self serving and the out and out distasteful. This was the cold wind of reality that captured the mood but didn’t spoil it, that enhanced the reasons to which the town of Bootle has felt the pressure of for decades.

Interrobang, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(459 words, 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Keith Lally, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To find Keith Lally in the area is to feel the calm reassurance that one might expect if you came across a local map of the surroundings and with a signpost to safety, past the storms, through the complexities of harm and the routes of dead end obliteration, it is the finding in which you know the music will guide you, in which the point of the day becomes meaningful and the endeavour of spiritual exhaustion is relieved and completely and neatly folded away.

Keith Lally, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(415 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Pod Cousins, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Pod Cousins performing in Bootle, July 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is always something new to learn, someone else’s voice that must be heard, appreciated and perhaps loved, life without learning is to become stilted, stuck forever in the machine that is designed to grind you down to a place of acceptance and interminable arrogance.

Pod Cousins, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

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

Ste Neildsy, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Ste Neildsy performing in Bootle. July 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Acoustic is what acoustic does; in the scheme of things, it might get lost in the clamour of the fast paced and often absurd world we find ourselves inhabiting. It might be passed by and only thought of as something you might find at a wedding or in the confines of a smaller sized venue, one in which is often passed by for the big brash experience, the pounding of the beat.

Ste Neildsy, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(420 words, 1 image, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Alan Triggs, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Alan Triggs is a model of calm as he steps on the stage at the Battle of Bands in Bootle’s Community Hub, no beads of sweat massing in numbers upon his lyrical brow, no sign of nerves in his fingers as he plays the guitar; after all this is a man who is seemingly content in his life and his the delivery of his muse; after all why should the man worry when the muse is singing his favourite songs and making him one of the most enjoyed performers in the area.

Alan Triggs, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(373 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

The JJohns, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Everything happens for a reason, everything is connected in some way and whilst the event in Bootle, the Battle of the Bands would have produced a worthy winner, in actual facts, the big winners on the day were the people of Bootle, the paying crowd who made their way to the ground of the Johnson’s Pavilion and who relished a day in which music in the area was absolute king.

The JJohns, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

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

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Cal Ruddy in Bootle, July 2016. Photograph By Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Amongst the bright young things of Liverpool’s all encompassing music box is the spirited and genuinely skilful Cal Ruddy, a man to whom a song holds only mystery, the suspense of glory and to whom obscurity is just a word destined for those who will not try, who give in before they have even started. The song is in the D.N.A. of Cal Ruddy, he presents it to the audience as if holding aloft a laurel made of silk and gold, the pleasure of the sensuous mixed with the desire for beauty and it is one to relish being amongst.

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

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

Red Winter, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Red Winter in Bootle, July 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Life will always throw a curve ball, you don’t need to find yourself at any American Baseball park to understand that, you just need to know that at times what the day may have held in store, can turn out to be infinitely more interesting and filled with more passion than a 21^st century television version of Wuthering Heights or Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Red Winter, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(423 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Billy Kelly, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle.

Billy Kelly performing in Bootle, July 2016. Photograph By Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is genius at work in the world, there is courage and there is simplicity wrapped up in so much talent that sometimes as you sit back and take the view of artistry in, it can leave you feeling a little scared, not worried, not anxious but scared that one day it might not be around to be held by.

Billy Kelly, Gig Review. Johnsons’ Pavilion, Bootle. full post

(490 words, 1 image, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)