Category Archives: Live

Pete Wylie, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Close your eyes and think for a minute of one of the men and women who exemplifies the whole Liverpool sound, the charm and the no-nonsense, the humour and the artistic vision all wrapped up in lyrics that make you both beam with pride and raise a fist in solidarity alongside. The sound you hear is one that you might not have heard for a while, the tone of voice still sweet, the manner of the anger and resentment to some still intense and charismatic and the utter magnetism of the performer is such that daring to take a peek through gripped and straining fingers becomes too much. For it is true Pete Wylie, the man who has a street map of his home city indelibly stamped into the very fabric of his D.N.A., is back thrilling audiences once more.

Pete Wylie, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(630 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Mersey Wylie, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The rich vein of life, the tapestry that weaves its way through the streets, through iconic buildings such as The Bombed out Church of St. Luke’s, the radical nature of two opposing buildings of faith being at opposite ends of one of the most artistic streets in the city and to perhaps the greatest single collection of music venues and theatres anywhere in the country in which thousands of people get to show their devotion to the natural calling of entertainment, continues from one generation to the other.

Mersey Wylie, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(554 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Emily Smith, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

No matter how good the venue, no matter how respectable the recording history of the artist, sometimes going out on the road with an album that has generated such good feeling towards it, can seem a little dull when heard live in comparison to the image that the listener has built up in their head.

Emily Smith, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport. full post

(434 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Space, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Tommy Scott of Space at the 02 Academy, Liverpool. 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It had all been leading to this. The moment when the re-emergence of one of the great Liverpool bands kicked off touring again, being back in the studio for the first time in years, re-connecting with those that never wanted to say goodbye to them and the songs; the epic nature of tracks that more than ever had the ring of truth and perfection about them.

Space, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(614 words, 1 image, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Republica, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Saffron at the 02 Academy, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Just one look from the stage down at the heaving throng of fans said it all. The perhaps half missed wink from Saffron in the general direction of fans who clambered alongside Republica for the incredible ride suggested further hair raising times ahead and yet the manner of the performance was one of electric reminisance and a love rekindled for many in the o2 Academy in Liverpool. The wink, the strut, the pulse of a heartbeat growing stronger by the second proposed the adulation of a band that were cruelly cut off in their prime but who now in the form of the stunning Saffron, Tim Dorney and Jonny Glue, were back and sounding as terrific as they did in 1995.

Republica, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(434 words, 1 image, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Elbow, Gig Review. Paradiso, Amsterdam.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Elbow are not Britain’s hidden treasure anymore. While the band and their albums have always been the critics’ favourite, they never became really famous. Until there was their magnificent, Mercury award-winning The Seldom Seen Kid, which launched the band into stardom: they sang for the B.B.C., wrote the Olympics tune and played into sold-out stadiums. Now they have released another splendid album, The Take off and Landing of Everything, and this is celebrated with a world tour at the biggest venues. The kick-off of this tour, call it a warm-up if you like after a hiatus of fourteen months, however, starts at a very small and venue: Paradiso in Amsterdam.

Elbow, Gig Review. Paradiso, Amsterdam. full post

(397 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Kathryn Williams, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

History has a habit of colliding with the present day. Existence it seems is all about the small quirks of fate that lead a person from one place to the next and then an overlap, the brief spill into the past and an action from your childhood is bought back into plain site and a small forgotten memory lingers causing a reflection and possibly a smile.

Kathryn Williams, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(696 words, estimated 2:47 mins reading time)

Lizzie Nunnery, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Lizzie Nunnery, Leaf, Liverpool. 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Lizzie Nunnery commands respect. Four simple words that are as exact as day must surely follow night or as life will find a way, for anyone catching Lizzie Nunnery for the first time, the heavens may have aligned just at the right moment for them to see for themselves just exactly why Mellowtone rate her so highly and why Liverpool music goers absolutely insist that the woman breathes guitar chords, she plays with such analytical and pure mind that you cannot but be helped drawn into the notes and words.

Lizzie Nunnery, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(397 words, 1 image, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Jessicas Ghost, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Jessicas Ghost, Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

No matter how hard you try, you cannot achieve the goal of seeing all the great bands to come your way in your life time. To try would perhaps be folly, the madness of a person bereft of the need to do anything else and who finds sleep just an irrational pastime.

Jessicas Ghost, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(473 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)