steve earle in Liverpool. August 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The word legend is, at times, overused. It is the way of the English language that almost anything or anybody can have the word placed before it and that is perfectly acceptable. For what else is the fluidity of the sematic if not for marking out certain well used phrases if it has a sense of positivity attached to it?
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The Echo Arena is arguably the perfect place to go when you really want to be part of a large crowd, the heaving mass of humanity enjoying the finest that Rock and other genres have to offer, Whether it’s Roger Waters, Status Quo, Muse or even the legendary Neil Young, the arena has a vibe that means Liverpool music fans don’t have to travel to far off venues in Manchester, Birmingham or London.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Studio 2 has held many a night where the audience has been gripped by the performance; it has hosted Steve Macfarlane’s outstanding Sunday afternoon slots in which the occasion is always something to look forward to. It has seen the likes of Twisted Trees, the brilliant Little Sparrow, Matt Breen and Susie Jones perform on its stage and even had the legendary Brian Nash, John Gorman, Liverpool wordsmith Peter Grant and a whole host of poets and musicians give their all within the room. It even hosted the likes of Marillion and once upon a time as they recorded one of their many albums there and yet the ambient room has surely never hosted a band like Bad Pollyanna before.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Life is not quite a race against time, the hours will go past at their usual speed and the clock will recognise every hour with its usual exuberance and maddening, almost happy like sophistication. It is the time you cannot see, the tick between tock that you have to use wisely and gain the spirit and wherewithal to make a difference to life and to the quality of your performance.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There can be nothing more that can make you suffer as if your ex-partner has run away with the one you left them for, or make you feel so elated in the same breath as if they had left behind their credit cards and a hastily scribbled note with their pin number on than feeling the dichotomy of watching a young band give such a performance and be so well appreciated that you cannot help but feel somehow you have wasted your life.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
A runaway train hurtling along the track, its metal shell gleaming in the radiant sunlight and with the band members from Metallica flying above in a stolen helicopter but somehow managing to play their greatest hits as in homage to the train’s pursuit has more chance of developing a sluggish demeanour than you could ever slow down They’re Coming To Get You Barbara once they have warmed up. Not that the band need much time but it gives the train a deluded self- confidence that nothing can match that type of speeding Metal.
Michael Sutton, St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool. Augist 2014.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Imagine playing in your first professional football match and it being the F.A Cup Final, you score a Hat-Trick, clear the ball off the line saving a certain equaliser in the last minute and being told by the Manager that Barcelona have put in an offer for you. Or if that sounds too far-fetched, being elected to Parliament on the wave of popular opinion, keeping all your promises, being hailed a World-Statesperson and somehow being someone of such high moral value that you only take a salary in keeping with the lowest earners in your constituency; none of that possibly compares to playing your debut gig in the open air venue of St. Luke’s and being sensational. Surely the latter is the hardest to believe.
Greedy Jesus, St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool. August 2014.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
In Jesus some trust, if you hear Greedy Jesus perform then all musical worship is usually conviction in faith is expected and delivered. Faith is what you make of it, it is what gets you through the small hours, the darkness and the negative damning thoughts that creep into your psyche like a rampaging vampiric worm bent on eating out on your soul and asking for a doggy bag for the leftovers; faith is what stands between you and oblivion.
Elijah James, Zanzibar. August 2014.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There is no way you could miss Elijah James, out in the open or as he sits down to perform infront of an audience. The quiet, modest, almost unassuming man has a following that is vocal and enjoys what he does and quite rightly so.
Sons Of Mowgli, St Luke’s Church, Liverpool. August 2014.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is often reported as a matter of fact that every living Human on the planet could stand side by side on the Isle of Wight, aside from the logistical nightmare and the social faux pas of finding yourself next to someone who thinks they are a clever so and so and refusing to shake your hand, just exactly how would you entertain everybody whilst the experiment was proved? If you made everybody listen to an I-Pod and made sure that the first songs they heard were by Wirral-band Sons of Mowgli, then at least whilst wondering why you would conduct such an insane experiment, the people stood shoulder to shoulder on the Isle of Wight would have something decent to listen to.