Category Archives: Live

Dan Wilson, Gig Review. District, Liverpool. Hope Fest 2015.

Simon James on Saxaphone for Dan Wilson at District 2015.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The message of Hope is plastered without impunity everywhere you look and the thought of the displaced and the homeless being made to suffer such indignity in the 21^st Century is one that should cause society to feel absolute shame. Hope though is one thing that can never be taken away; in no matter what form hope should present itself, then hope survives.

As part of this year’s Hope Fest line up, a new hope for the ever growing pool of talent that Liverpool shares with the world is felt in the music supplied by Dan Wilson.

Dan Wilson, Gig Review. District, Liverpool. Hope Fest 2015. full post

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

Edgar Jones, Gig Review. District, Liverpool. Hope Fest 2015.

Edgar Jones at District. Hope Fest 2015. Photograph by Lis Garrett. Picture used with kind permission by Lis Garrett.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Back in March of this year the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool was treated to the re-emergence of one of its most favourite musicians in the form of Edgar Jones on the stage as he opened the evening for the musical colossus that is Dr. John, it was a return to which many in the home grown audience could, if propriety had been thrown out of the window, have wept with solemn joy at the sight. Many it was to be seen, were certainly on the verge of letting such stifling actions go and no one would have blamed them for being so honest and in touch with their feelings over such a talented man and his much missed voice.

Edgar Jones, Gig Review. District, Liverpool. Hope Fest 2015. full post

(416 words, 1 image, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Art Garfunkel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There may have been a time when many whose love of the music of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel may have feared that they would never again hear the voice that drove the New York pair to such great heights, it may have been a well founded fear but strength and purpose are funny bedfellows when adversity strikes. As the Philharmonic Hall audience sat down, the tingling excitement of hearing a legend in their midst and the trepidation of what could be flowing through every panic neuron in the brain, Art Garfunkel silenced even the stoniest of hearts and made love to the air that surrounded the stark bare stage.

Art Garfunkel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(528 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

The Rails, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Certain traits and particular talents are always handed down through the D.N.A. but it takes lots of hard work on behalf of the receiver of such good fortune to make their talent shine through and seem as effortless as breathing in fresh air.

For Kamila Thompson, the daughter of arguably one of the finest Folk/Rock music writers of the last 50 years, and James Walbourne, collectively known as The Rails, to perform for the Philharmonic Hall crowd ahead of Richard Thompson long anticipated night in Liverpool was one that was shrouded in a type of delicate cool and inspiring vocal delivery.

The Rails, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Richard Thompson, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

For many, Richard Thompson is the voice of the bereft and the forgotten, the loud speaker against injustice and arguably the British Folk equivalent of Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. It is easy to see why when he performs in such determined spirit and absolute certainty of belief in front of a Liverpool audience that hung upon every one of his words as if following a gospel sermon and to whom as the night finished with the pulse of a musical manifesto from his long and outstanding career still ringing in the ears, rose as one to give a standing ovation that was clear, concise and rampant with pleasure.

Richard Thompson, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Paul Dunbar, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Paul Dunbar at the Bluecoat, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Paul Dunbar doesn’t work that often without his tremendous band, The Midnight Ramble, thundering with exquisite charm beside him and the sound of a thousand instruments all begging for that brief but beautiful solo spot in which to extol the virtues of one of Liverpool’s finest young bands. However, when he does it is with the same resounding belief and great bundles of effort he puts into the group arena and it shows as always, great humility and tremendous authority.

Paul Dunbar, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool. full post

(402 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Anthony Cunningham, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Anthony Cunningham at the Bluecoat, Liverpool. September 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It’s when you hear a song being taken to its vocal extremes that you realise just how good someone is and you that you find yourself making a note in your diary to check out when the possibility of catching them again will arise; it is at that moment when art in any of its forms speaks out to you.

Anthony Cunningham, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool. full post

(443 words, 1 image, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

SheBeat, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool. (2015).

SheBeat at the Bluecoat, Liverpool. September 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The softly spoken but dynamite lyricist SheBeat once more was made to feel more than welcome as part of the Above The Beaten Track Festival at the Bluecoat and it is with little wonder as the sound of carefully laid out creativity echoed through the Sandon Room at the Bluecoat and the smile on the faces inside as they enjoyed the songs was something to behold.

SheBeat, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool. (2015). full post

(351 words, 1 image, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Yarbo, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Yarbo at the Bluecoat, September 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

September in the Bluecoat Garden has the type of ring to it that should be preserved in a sonnet or the wild imaginings of Liverpool’s Roger McGough. It is the poetic statement that deserves its own Blue Plaque and with the acknowledgement that Adrian Henri sat here and contemplated the form and gave to the world freely. Yet as the chimes of 1p.m. sounded somewhere in the city, the quietly resolute garden, the abundance of music lovers sat or stood with patience and fortitude for the coming day of music ahead, Yarbo took to the stage and played with freedom and mutual understanding.

Yarbo, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool. full post

(367 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Shoes4brakes, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Garden, Kazimier, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If there were medals for coaxing the sunshine back into the day and dismissing the rain that soaked Liverpool for the best part of a couple of hours, then Shoes4brakes would be arriving home with more decorations than Usain Bolt coming back from China with his tied around his waist and with Mo Farrah’s secretly stashed in his holdall.

The weather of course is but a side show to the main event, the collective power of wonderful persuasion that the twosome bring to the stage should not be easily dismissed, for to do so plays scorn upon the whole Liverpool music experience and that is something which should be sought out and spanked for its impudence and dishonour.

Shoes4brakes, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Garden, Kazimier, Liverpool. full post

(368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)