Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Life is a distraction filled with the sometimes endless search for acceptance, love and experience; it should never be about fear, about wondering if you are going to go out and come home alone, that the music might suddenly stop in a heartbeat or if the lights will one day turn out because of someone else’s intolerable beliefs.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
There are entertainers and there are showmen, there are the musicians and songwriters to whom artistic impression is everything and to which a brief single moment in time in their company as they strut the stage is enough to fall in love with them.
There is no doubt that Adam Ant, a darling of the British music empire, a man who broke rules and was loved for it, still has the ability to turn heads, to slay an audience with a single smile and to offer the feelings of youthful unfulfilled desire with a single bound of his incredible presence. The stage would not be anything without the man to whom personality is an overwhelming prospect and outlandish cool but a genuine request to stand in awe of.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is easy to love James Wyatt, the young performer almost shyly stipulates such cool and terrific poise on stage that to not admire him, to not fall for the songs of bitterness, of despair and desperate longing in an unfair and charmless world, is to realise that your ears have long since given up the task they were appointed for, that this is music that sits very much in the same vein as some of the great performers at their most iconic and virtuous.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Being away from home does not stop people caring about you, it does not mean that you are able to shrink in stature or let the light of the song ever diminish; for by doing so, the light fades and allows darkness to fill the void. It is darkness that never once pokes its head above the trenches as far as the beautiful voice and song writing of Esme Bridie is concerned.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
It is arguably impossible to calculate all the love in the world, you would be better off just trying to attempt collecting sand from a far off beach and turning into Cornish tin; some things are just physically impractical to do and hopeless to challenge.
Alison Green at The Cavern, Liverpool. Iternational Pop Overthrow 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cut through the noise, reduce everything around you to a state of near silence, not so much pin dropping but that rare beat in which nobody breathes, nobody exhales or makes the slightest murmur at the exact same time, hack away at everything that detracts the senses and leave the bloodied corpses of indifference laying in their own pool of unreasonable understanding; for when Alison Green travels to the International Pop Overthrow, the event is one to savour for all its worth.
King Mojo at The Cavern in Liverpool. May 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The area around Middlesbrough, the town to which clings to the edge of the North East and its old Yorkshire heritage for all its worth, has had many excuse recently to party in celebration and joy as its sporting heroes place the town back once more in its arguably rightful place. It is one that is deserved but also tempered by the reality of government inaction, of a feeling of bitterness and anger at the way the area has been left to its own devices and face ruination at the hands of the dirty side of politics.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The look may have altered slightly, the line up somewhat different, however, there should be no doubting that the aspiration and kudos attached to the London band The Theme, the sound of a million marching ideas and clean cut lyrics remains the same, remains compelling and clear; this is still The Theme, this is still life as lovers of the International Pop Overthrow would know and understand.
The Theme continue the good work laid down in the recent past and whilst the band have changed some personnel, the commitment to the scene, to the rush of truthful grandeur and roughly inspired life continues unabated and with strength in depth.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Hayseed Dixie are an example to how tribute bands should be. What’s the point in seeing or hearing a covers group if they sound the same as the original? The gentlemen from Hayseed Dixie give a fantastic yet unusual twist to rock n roll, as distorted guitar solos are replaced by a banjo and acoustic guitars.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The Jokers, bringing back classic rock to the masses, as sure and cool as they can and aided by the fact that vocalist Wayne Parry has a unique voice suited to old style rock n roll which is often missed in this generation of music; coupled with a classic guitar solos, rhythm bass and brilliant drum beats makes the band stand out from others of their kind.