Category Archives: Live

Alison Green, Gig Review. International Pop Overthrow 2015. The Cavern, Liverpool.

Alison Green at The Cavern. International Pop Overthrow 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Almost a year has passed since Canterbury’s Alison Green sat down inside The Cavern as part of the Independent Pop Overthrow and gave what turned out to be a smashing debut performance in Liverpool. A year on and that taste of what resides in the heart of a woman with poetry in her veins and with an inquisitive mind in search of a great lyric to marry off to a prospective, potential chord has become something in which the Canterbury set of old would have been enthusing over and the legend of Whiskey Ginger Johnson would already be known far and wide.

Alison Green, Gig Review. International Pop Overthrow 2015. The Cavern, Liverpool. full post

(454 words, 1 image, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Luke Gallagher, Gig Review. International Pop Overthrow 2015. The Cavern, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To watch Luke Gallagher on stage is to be reminded of times past in Liverpool but with a huge sign around the rememberance proclaiming a possible future, a very bright one for both music lovers and for Luke Gallagher himself as times collide and merge, the coalescing of universes being bombarded by the heroes of music history all coming together in the style and voice of a young lad from Wrexham.

Luke Gallagher, Gig Review. International Pop Overthrow 2015. The Cavern, Liverpool. full post

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

Fun Of The Pier, Gig Review. International Pop Overthrow 2015. The Cavern, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is nothing quite like an afternoon having the time of your life and Fun of the Pier, especially when you can replace the thought of outdated entertainment associated with a Victorian and Edwardian era, of sand and candy floss falling into the sea below and cheap entertainment designed to thrill the masses as they ward off the spectre of yet another attacking seagull, with one that sits comfortably with the audiences at The Cavern at this year’s International Pop Overthrow and in which has the added appeal of The Suns’ Dave Lloyd in attendance.

Fun Of The Pier, Gig Review. International Pop Overthrow 2015. The Cavern, Liverpool. full post

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

Fearless Vampire Killers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2015).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

When Fearless Vampire Killers last stood on the stage of the Academy in support to Medina Lake in 2013, the sense of the occasion was rife in the air. The mercurial, almost explosive substances of hopeful burgeoning testosterone mixed with feminine guile and raging hormones fighting it out over supremacy and the will of capitulation hung heavy in the air and the taste of being undefeatable rampant and undisguised. Nothing has changed in the intervening 18 months except for the air getting heavier and the crowd becoming more vocal, aside from that, to be at a Fearless Vampire gig is to be honoured.

Fearless Vampire Killers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2015). full post

(431 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Annisokay, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The enigmatic smile that growls in the darkness on offer by German band Annisokay throughout their latest album, is nothing compared to the broad all knowing grin they lay out before a live audience, especially an audience that is treated to their performance for the first time ands in a city not noted for its love of the genre.

Annisokay, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Eddi Reader, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There is impressive and then there is confident, to have both relative strangers on stage at the same time is a rare commodity in which to draw breath, exhale deeply at the thought and then just let your heart go with it. For the confident and the impressive will always take the breath away, you may as well surrender fully and let the air escape your lungs voluntarily than let the preposterous and beige tell you that what you are seeing on stage is nothing, for those twin shades of humanity know nothing.

Eddi Reader, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

The Alan Kelly Gang, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The pleasure in life is almost uncontainable when you come across a support act to a superstar who are not just un-bloodied and unbowed by being on the same bill, they are treated by that main act as equals, soldiers and comrades on the front line together, locked arm in arm and heading with strange insurmountable vigour towards the same goal.

For The Alan Kelly Gang, that sense of equality, of musical parity is one that is taken with great joy and sense of obligation to deliver a set of music that is beyond reproach and keenly felt all the way through their set.

The Alan Kelly Gang, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(388 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Chris De Burgh, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (2015).

Chris De Burgh at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It has been four long years since Chris de Burgh last stood on the stage of the Philharmonic Hall and delivered music to his adoring fans. A man to whom being presented with two roses midway through the first section of the evening, is not an embarrassment to be savoured at the end of a show but to be moved to gratitude and thanks immediately and being humble earnest in his appreciation.

Chris De Burgh, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (2015). full post

(625 words, 1 image, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

Black Diamond, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool.

Black Diamond, East Vilage Arts Centre, Liverpool. May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The one to watch in 2015 has delivered to the point of fanaticism, dispensed with the thought of possibility and served up the righteous at room temperature an allowed to boil well into the night. For Black Diamond this particular gig at the East Village Arts Centre was astonishing, a tour de force of explosive beauty coupled with the heat of derision and the portrayal of band who cannot surely be stopped.

Black Diamond, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool. full post

(465 words, 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Diamond Days, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool.

Diamond Days at E.V.A.C, Liverpool, May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A change of scene is all it takes to get the full bloodied effect of what a band is capable of saying. Not just capable, but with style and accomplished grace, with passion and drive and the sweet serenade of a smile majestically raised to the heavens. The change is so palpable that it really makes the listener fully endorse the group as just oozing awesome from out of their collective shell.

Diamond Days, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool. full post

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