Category Archives: Live

James Michael, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

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

For many, St. Patricks Day, usually with the celebrations spread over a long weekend, is the chance to party for the first time in the year. Nobody would blame a single person for wanting to get rid of the worst winter blues and weather hangover for perhaps decades by going out on the town and taking in the Saturday night shindigs and social gatherings.

In the Zanzibar Club, something was unfolding as James Michael, a previous X-Factor contestant, made his way to the stage and gave a great account of himself with some well written tunes and some inspired lyrics.

James Michael, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Alexandra Jayne, Gig Review. The Brink, Liverpool. (2014).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is something of a delicious pleasure in seeing a young singer/songwriter on stage just a few weeks after you saw them for the first time and knowing deep down that what you saw on stage was only half the story.

Alexandra Jayne, Gig Review. The Brink, Liverpool. (2014). full post

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

The Mono L.P.’s, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There seem to be bands that somehow stay a secret far longer than they deserve to be. The clandestine way of the Universe just keeping them under the radar for just a little while longer before unveiling them with a flourish and watching the world go wow! Though by no means a cult band, The Mono L.Ps have been plugging away and getting huge attention, now is surely the time for the universe to say enough of the secrecy, this is the band, deal as you may find.

The Mono L.P.’s, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(661 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

Rumours Of Fleetwood Mac, Southport Theatre And Convention Centre. Gig Review.

Rumours of Fleetwood Mac, Southport 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Great music never goes away, it has no need, it can just wait happily secure in the knowledge that at some point somebody is going to pick up a guitar; beat a rhythm out on a drum kit and the vocals will be performed with the right sizeable emotion for it breathe life once more.

Rumours Of Fleetwood Mac, Southport Theatre And Convention Centre. Gig Review. full post

(546 words, 1 image, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014).

The Stranglers at the o2 Academy, Liverpool. 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

This is the Gospel according to the Men In Black, to the musicians who have shaped more than one generation’s musical taste; the men who stuck two fingers up to the doubters, the unbelievers, the down-right miserable and doom laden and who have had the final incredible laugh for the last 40 years. The sermon to the already converted and to those who have come along in the intervening years, the thank you to all who gave The Stranglers room in the heart and who filled the room at The Academy in Liverpool to bursting. The Gospel surely reads, “Thank You.”

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

(639 words, 1 image, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)

The Selecter, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

No matter how many years go by, nothing ever really ever seems to change at all. No matter how hard you try to see the difference, time has not erased any of the anxiety or difficulties that affect ordinary lives.

However, sometimes you can’t have enough of Too Much Pressure though and with ever graceful Pauline Black and The Selecter making their way to Liverpool to celebrate the bands 35^th anniversary, the pressure is absorbed, danced too, sang with great gusto and with an abandon that you would expect as perhaps arguably the greatest Ska band of the period rolled back the years and showed that class is always permanent.

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

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

By The Rivers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

March may have been blown in the back of the worst set of winter storms in living memory but the thought of sunshine, weather so perfect you could just turn on the radio and dream of Henry Blofeld delivering a perfectly delivered and seamless soliloquy in praise of a six by Curtly Ambrose and strawberries being placed in your mouth by a toga wearing Roman is never too far away. That dream of summer, of the lazy perfect day was bought ever closer by the Leicester band By The Rivers who were support for the legendary Ska band The Selecter on the opening day of March.

By The Rivers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(401 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Penguin Cafe, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Penguin cafe at The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There may well have been more instruments on stage than you would find in the front window of a well-stocked music shop and more performers on stage than you would notes on a piano but each one was more than needed to give the rich, almost delicate sound demanded by the ensemble of musicians that make up the very talented and very cool Penguin Café.

Penguin Cafe, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

The Twang, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Any band that can survive the pre-Christmas atmosphere of The Rainbow in the area of Birmingham called Digbeth, a place in which poets have trembled and the packets of pork scratchings come with their own serving suggestion, will always surely go down well in Liverpool. The Twang exemplify the bridge, the mutual love in that does exist between the cities of Liverpool and Birmingham, especially when it comes to decent, well performed music.

The Twang, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Mike Peters, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Mike Peters in Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Almost 30 years to the day since the album Declaration was released, Mike Peters found himself once more inside the 02 Academy and was greeted by all who wouldn’t let a rainstorm get in the way of listening to one of the greats of British Rock. Not greeted, lauded perhaps would be a better word, even praised and rightly so.

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

(856 words, 1 image, estimated 3:25 mins reading time)