Category Archives: Live

Sons Of Jet, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There must be something in the Merseyside air that draws James Styring back to Liverpool and away from his home in Lincolnshire. The smell of the past, the passion that still seeps out of every pore, every venue and the recapturing of the excitement that gave Liverpool the right to say with pride that it was and always will be the capital of culture, for James Styring and his band Sons Of Jet, that passion is something they capture with their music and the that long loved sound that is forever entwined in the Liverpool air, transfers easily to the flat country fields of Lincolnshire.

Sons Of Jet, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Midland Railway, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014.

Midland Railway at The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow, 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7 ^1/2/ 10

There is arguably nothing better than coming across a band with a sense of humour when the day has been filled with powerful meaningful songs, tracks that have exploded your mind and set the bran on a semi quaver rush. The art of the whimsy, of lyrics that speak at times more eruditely than the impassioned unveiled contempt and derision quite rightly aimed at those the general public are forced to stomach being in power, whimsy and humour is a very powerful tool and in the hands of Midland Railway, led by Nick Lote from Harbourne in Birmingham, the humour of the band shines through.

Midland Railway, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014. full post

(389 words, 2 images, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

The Last Fakers, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014.

The Last Fakers at The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The International Pop Overthrow is one of those occasions in the Liverpool music calendar where to just wander into The Cavern Club and take in some music for a short while is to be expected and roundly welcomed. The chance should you feel inclined to come off the street after a busy day of work or even the playful art of shopping in your attempt to make the day go past and watch perhaps half an hour of music before making your way home.

The Last Fakers, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014. full post

(517 words, 1 image, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

AqPop, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014

AqPop at the Cavern Club as part of the 2014 International Pop Overthrow. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7 ^1/2/10

Liverpool is more than used to the music venues of Liverpool filling the local ears with contented understanding of its Norwegian artists who have made the city their home. It is one of the many strengths of the city that it embraces, not only the huge links between its Viking heritage and Scouse, but the immense influx of well-written and totally eclectic and narrative songs.

AqPop, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. International Pop Overthrow. 2014 full post

(356 words, 1 image, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Tori Amos, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Tori Amos, Birmingham Symphony Hall, May 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Expect the unexpected, anticipate the astonishing and most of all imagine the extraordinary, for when it comes to watching Tori Amos on stage you can do more than sit there and take in the majesty of it all.

Tori Amos, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall. full post

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

Trevor Moss And Hannah Lou, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Being asked to support Tori Amos on her latest tour must feel in some cases akin to finding a winning lottery ticket from a couple of months previous and then finding its worth more than you imagined. Whilst there have been many over the years who have this very immense privilege of working with arguably one of the greatest in depth lyric writers of the last twenty years, none perhaps have seemed to enjoy the sensation as much as Trevor Moss and Hannah Lou.

Trevor Moss And Hannah Lou, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Little Sparrow at the Studio 2, Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Although some artists grow on you over time, there is an argument for the thought that your first opinion of them is normally the one that is correct. With life becoming far too fast to keep up at times before the next trend or even whim, the next vogue act or person in favour on television. Sometimes you have to make a stand, draw a long line around yourself and say, bear with me as I really want to savour this thanks and in Little Sparrow, the line demands to painted over in several coats of luminous yellow paints and a few traffic stops signs flashing stop for good measure.

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

(455 words, 2 images, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Susie Jones, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Susie Jones at Studio 2 in Liverpool May 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In a night that was filled to overflowing with very cool and deserving female musicians making all the headlines inside Studio 2 on Parr Street, to open up ahead of the likes of Little Sparrow, Ingrid Frosland and the superb Norwegian band Kalandra might be considered a tad daunting. However, for Susie Jones, daunting is just another word for showing exactly what you are made of and watching her and her two fellow musicians on stage, the equally cool Dave Parker and Rob Kentell, daunting was a by word for secure and musically affluent.

Susie Jones, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

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

Michael Bolton, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Michael Bolton, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is a certain satisfaction to be gleaned from watching Michael Bolton on stage. The sheer effortlessness in which he sings, the manner of his performance and the smooth content feel of the music grabs an audience from the very beginning and long after he has left the stage there are still fans glued to their seats, mentally and physically exhausted by the intense feelings that have come from one person, one band, so utterly captivated by the magnetism of the song.

Michael Bolton, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(517 words, 2 images, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Lucy May, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To walk on stage infront of audience as a virtual unknown, to throw yourself upon the musical mercy of an audience that had been building themselves up for the main event, to do this whilst the spotlight glares down upon you and in some sort of electrical judgment has your life in the claws of its wiry hands and give a set of your own songs the type of true belief usually found in someone whose established credentials has seen them through a few decades; then you know you are witnessing the start of something that could go a long way to being a star of their generation.

Lucy May, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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