Category Archives: Live

Jimmy And The Revolvers, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To sing on a stage, to perform as a duo when normally your live set is a tight and almost unbreakable foursome, to play as though your voice is smiling, is something that just has to be seen and witnessed. For Jimmy and The Revolvers that quality of being able to pull off all three requirements to being to being considered having greatness thrust upon them is one that comes with a humble shrug of the shoulders and a unsaid apology as if to say, “Well why wouldn’t we?”

Jimmy And The Revolvers, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool. full post

(463 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Gary A. Gardner, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church. Liverpool.

Gary A. Gardner at St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool. August 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The last year must seem like a dream to Gary A. Gardener. A man who found his way back into performing, who has played gig after gig in the local area and beyond and who has been roundly supported and appreciated fully. Why this might be a surprise one can only surmise however when you can write songs with clarity and overwhelming sensitivity, the surprise must be taken out to the wood shed, spanked and told that it is not welcome for Mr. Gardener really does fit the bill in terms of very good musicians who can hold an audience’s attention.

Gary A. Gardner, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church. Liverpool. full post

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

John Chatterton, Gig Review. St Luke’s Church, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

No matter how many times you watch John Chatterton perform in or around Liverpool you constantly feel bowled over by the genuine love that works its way between performer and audience in a constant yoyo effect that never seems capable of stopping.

The set is one that has an un-dilutable power attached to it, a facility to charm despite what many people might think about certain songs, their expressions and thoughts are soon changed as Mr. Chatterton’s guitar takes the crowd past their pre-conceptions and delights and beguiles in broad equal measure.

John Chatterton, Gig Review. St Luke’s Church, Liverpool. full post

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

Billy Kelly, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool.

Billy Kelly at St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool. August 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There aren’t too many towns and cities in the U.K. that are as close physically, geographically and tangibly as Bootle and Liverpool. Many are the people that don’t know much about the town on the Mersey, just over three miles north from the Capital of music culture and the struggles it faces on a daily basis. There are those that even think that Bootle is just another off-shoot, an estate, within the borders of Liverpool. Yet despite a certain lack of understanding that resides in the minds of many, Bootle shares a common thread with its younger but much bigger sister, its ability to turn out musicians who adhere to the way of social conscious and who aren’t afraid to say so. One such musician opened up the substantial afternoon of acoustic music at St Luke’s Church, Bootle’s own Billy Kelly.

Billy Kelly, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool. full post

(488 words, 1 image, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Mersey Wylie, Gig Review. Palm Sugar, Liverpool.

mersey wylie at Palm Sugar, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Sunday evenings can be a time of reflection, the chance to catch up on some time alone reading from a stack of books that you keep putting off, or even plunging head first into the afterthought of dish cleaning and ironing whilst one eye is on whatever the television companies believe you can cope with and allowing one side of your brain to doze off in bliss ahead of what passes for another week of toil.

Mersey Wylie, Gig Review. Palm Sugar, Liverpool. full post

(508 words, 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Laura James, Gig Review. Palm Sugar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7 ^½/ 10

There can be no doubting the utter class in Laura James’ voice when she sings as she simply radiates warmth and musical sincerity when she performs.

In Palm Sugar on a Sunday afternoon in which the wind had finally blown away the dark clouds that had got in the way to an extent of a tremendous Liverpool Pride the day before, the sound of Laura James’ voice carried out past the expensive decorative windows and out onto Chavasse Park. Looking out of one of the windows it was possible to see an elderly lady reminisce at the sound of Ms. James’ second set of the afternoon and see her fix on a point in time in which music carried all before it, in the days when numerous and in some cases insidious so called talent shows spat young gifted performers out or swallowed them in the hope of producing pound signs.

Laura James, Gig Review. Palm Sugar, Liverpool. full post

(344 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Liverpool Pride 2014, Waterfront Stage.

claire simmo. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Claire Simmo at Liverpool Pride 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Rain has a habit of getting in the way of the most superb of days, like a badly bruised apple can spoil a bag of tempting fruit; it can annoy and ruin any specific moment in which fun and reflection is the order of the day, yet it couldn’t destroy the party that was Liverpool Pride 2014.

Liverpool Pride 2014, Waterfront Stage. full post

(556 words, 2 images, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Space, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool Calling. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9^1/2/10

Space at St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool Calling. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

High above the city a banner unfurled as it was being towed along by a plane. It was un-missable, which was the point, to anybody who craned their neck and strained their eyesight to a limit not recommended by Opticians. In keeping with the tone of the weekend’s events and as hundreds of thousands packed any available square inch of pavement to them, the banner simply read, “There Are Giants In Town”. That there was but possibly not the ones the pilot was thinking of as he dragged the banner through the summer sky.

Space, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool Calling. Liverpool. full post

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

Jetta, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool Calling. Liverpool.

Jetta at St. Lukes Church, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8/10

In amongst all the Rock that was being played out to those gathered inside St. Luke’s, an amount of grace was needed and who better than Jetta to give the audience a certain amount of elegance and refined style as the steamy day gave way to warm evening appeal.

Jetta, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool Calling. Liverpool. full post

(372 words, 1 image, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

The Sundowners, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool Calling. Liverpool.

The Sundowners, St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool. Liverpool Calling. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Class shows at all times, flair is a trait that just announces itself before a word is spoken, an action inspired or a thought performed in the cold hazy obscured light or in the realms of a thousand eyes trained upon the deed; for The Sundowners, class is ready to be achieved at all times.

The Sundowners, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool Calling. Liverpool. full post

(429 words, 1 image, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)