Category Archives: Live

Marillion, Gig Review. ABC, Glasgow.

Marillion at the ABC, Glasgow. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The point of the journey, as Rush once said, is not to arrive. By completing the journey, all that you have learned about yourself can turn eventually to dust and atoms. It is perhaps a finer, arguably more noble, pursuit to keep travelling, to keep the finishing line hidden from view, to never have the experience of something ending less it eat away at you and allows the dust which holds the joints and creaking crevices together to inch by delicate inch slowly fade away.

Marillion, Gig Review. ABC, Glasgow. full post

(663 words, 1 image, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

Peter Gabriel, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Peter Gabriel at the Echo Arena, Liverpool. December 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

For many, Peter Gabriel is still seen as “The Progfather”, the man who defined a generation and stunning musical narration with a theatrical bent and who still gets talked of lovingly as perhaps being able to capture those moments of outstanding early Genesis releases. To others he is the man who played his part in bringing down a regime so vile and disturbing that it sends a shiver down the spine when images from that time are shown on television.

Peter Gabriel, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(796 words, 1 image, estimated 3:11 mins reading time)

Linnea Olsson And Jennie Abrahamson, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is perhaps beyond the compression or wildest dreams of any fan of music to understand what must go through the minds of the support act when they open up for what is considered a living legend. For many in a crowd just being in the vicinity of the front row of the gig is a claustrophobic and overwhelming prospect.

Linnea Olsson And Jennie Abrahamson, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(447 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Stephen Langstaff, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Stephern Langstaff at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. December 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

One of the ways in which to measure a person is how they can be weighed up in a situation not of their making or in the face of impossible insurmountable mounting odds; the quality of a person is not in what they eat, what they wear or how much stuff, gadgets, cost of house, money or seeming how popular they are after they have bought a round of drinks but in how they cope with a new challenge being thrown at them there and then on the spot and the power of how they are viewed.

Stephen Langstaff, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(562 words, 1 image, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The Science Of The Lamps, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

The Science of the Lamps at The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. December 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It doesn’t matter how long it has been since you last saw Science of the Lamps perform, some things are timeless enough to go at least a week without seeing. No more than a week though if you can ever help it and the twin dilemmas of appropriate funds and urging vocalist Kaya Herstad Carney to play more often with the imagery she deals out with utterly delicious precision are stacked in your favour.

The Science Of The Lamps, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Joe Symes And The Loving Kind, Gig Review. District, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To perform in Liverpool should be a nothing less than an honour. It is the rightful home of the birth of British Pop Music, the most successful city in the U.K. where music is concerned and in many way it is home to perhaps the most diverse variety, with even the glimmering of the heavier side of Metal and the coolness of Progressive Rock having its fans in the Merseyside areas surrounding the heartlands of venues such as The Cavern, Parr Street, The Academy, District, The Lomax, The Brink and The Epstein. To perform in Liverpool should be an honour, to watch Joe Symes and Loving Kind is a special kind of privilege.

Joe Symes And The Loving Kind, Gig Review. District, Liverpool. full post

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

Shamanarchy, Gig Review. District, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

It might not quite be Anarchy in the U.K. but the spirit of women with attitude, the delivery of a demon and the manner of a Greek god chewing through the finer points of why Humanity is at the beck and call of its sisters lives well and with some tremendous flowering agility in the heart of Shamanarchy .

Shamanarchy, Gig Review. District, Liverpool. full post

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

The All, Gig Review. District, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

There are times when to hold back your emotions and perhaps even your stringent, occasionally narrow, mind and let in a music argument that night not have been on your mind when you go into a venue. You might go in expecting one thing but then the support kicks in and you are left with a further belief attached to your many quivers and multitudes of bows.

For The All, the sound they produce is one of an unusual quality, a starkness which is endearing and coming so far out of left field that if donned an Everton kit and yet banged in a hat trick every week for Liverpool at Anfield nobody would be more surprised.

The All, Gig Review. District, Liverpool. full post

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

David Gray, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8/10

Touring with his new album Mutineers, this was David Gray’s first performance at the recently refurbished Liverpool Philharmonic Hall and his second overall since becoming one of the most sought after British artists of the last two decades. As soon as David walked on stage the crowd were on his side. Rightly so too, as David Gray’s career has been a long lasting one, with 11 studios albums under his belt; he has been performing live now for over 20 years.

David Gray, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Wallis Bird, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Wallis Bird at Leaf, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating 9/10

There is something uniquely endearing about Wallis Bird as she takes to the stage, something deeply fascinating and mesmerizing. It is as if the room upstairs at Leaf on Bold Street, known more perhaps for its gentility and courtesy has been suddenly transformed into the Liverpool Echo Arena. The mesmerising power of the individual to make the room appear so vast, to make the sound generated that of a collection of Concorde’s taking off simultaneously next to you and yet the true focus of attention appear so larger than life that their essence makes Wembley Stadium feel like a match box is one that makes you feel compelled to believe in power of mass hypnotism. All of this and yet the only weapons of choice is an acoustic guitar!

Wallis Bird, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(560 words, 1 image, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)