Liz Owen, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is good and bad news if you like or love music and you live with a gnat’s armpit of Liverpool. The bad news is, you will never hear everything that comes out of Merseyside, The Wirral or Cheshire. The fantastic news is, you will never hear everything that comes out of those same areas, for no matter how many nights a week you go out, no matter how pubs, venues or doorways you visit, there will always be someone new of interest to come along and shake your cosy perceptions up and who will add new colour to the proceedings.

Liz Owen, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

The Pond Between Us.

The Bikers rally that took place in Philadelphia that day

was but one highlight from a journey out from Media with

my dear friend Carole.

The city of brotherly love became the place where friendship

blossomed and now after more than twenty three years

I know she is still looking out for me and taking the lost

lonely lad she found isolated on a bench in a bar, surrounded by hundreds

of all-American types, drinking, laughing, shouting for the unseen

team to score in a game I didn’t understand properly, out for a walk round

The Pond Between Us. full post

(537 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Pi Jacobs, Hi-Rise Ranch. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a certainty in freedom that music offers the listener, to roam in the imagination arguably unlike any other art form. Plays and literature take you so far, they offer a perspective but from one dominant field, poetry allows you to take from it what you need but doesn’t offer up much of the hidden author and art and photography, beautiful though they may be, place before the voyeur a moment’s frozen snapshot of Time. Music seems to have the ability to cover all possible dimensions and the access in one single line to take you from for example the view seen from the Empire State Building to the very shoreline of Lake Ontario, the dancing notes and vocal harmony acting as a conduit, a musical magic carpet, to every place.

Pi Jacobs, Hi-Rise Ranch. Album Review. full post

(569 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

The Musketeers, The Accused. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Alexandra Dowling, Luke Pasqualino, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Maimie McCoy, Hugo Speer, Marc Warren, Phil Rowson, Charlotte Salt, Ed Stoppard, Marianne Oldham, Hara Yannas.

The end game is almost upon the faithful Musketeers. The Queen stands charged with treason and treachery, Aramis is deeply involved in a scandal that could bring civil war to France and Athos has started to see the deceitful Milady De Winter in a different light once more, the combination of all these chemical, potentially nuclear like explosive elements are enough to place the future of the country into unheralded jeopardy on the scale of Agincourt.

The Musketeers, The Accused. Television Review. full post

(484 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

From Foolish February To The Divinity Of May.

I have played many parts. The glove maker’s son

from Warwickshire suggested I should.

I have played the illusionist who laid upon the bed of nails

and who doted silently for his clown. I have played the clown

in the art of allusion, the fool, unseen like Lear’s imagination,

the part suiting me well; but thankfully, I never performed

a role like the court jester, slapping his masters on the back

but with the cunning engrained into the psychotic fancy to

remove a king from his throne or the down at heel

From Foolish February To The Divinity Of May. full post

(538 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Mike Peters, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Birmingham.

Mike Peters at the Birmingham Academy, March 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The message of the night was simple, that the power of love, hope and strength is an overriding force of nature which can help overcome the widest of chasms, the tallest of mountains and can hold the attention of a sold out audience right down to the newest of fans who weren’t alive when the century started, let alone those that have been on board The Alarm train for over 30 years.

Mike Peters, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Birmingham. full post

(731 words, 1 image, estimated 2:55 mins reading time)

The Tarnishing Of The Trumpet.

How is possible for the person who had the world at his feet,

the beckoning call of history call out with a flourish and fanfare

each time he raised his eyebrows and gave an opinion,

to fall so blindly, stupidly and recklessly low?

The flourished fanfare, now fading and sounding as if being delivered

by a midwife who has taken the job on,

not from duty or responsibility

but because she couldn’t get a job as a stripper or a walk on extra

in fashion shoot, her hands dirty, unsanitary and with the twisting

The Tarnishing Of The Trumpet. full post

(295 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

Alexandra Jayne, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Festival 2015. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Alexandra Jayne at the Unity Theatre in March 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The celestial heavens opened above the U.K. and the thought of the majesty and awe of space was offered to all below, the dance between Sun and the Moon a peek at what made our ancestors shudder with fascination and perhaps fear but in the skies above a 21^st Century Earth. As eclipses go, certainly over Liverpool, it wasn’t the most auspicious of moments, but that did not stop one star shining brighter and with greater meaning attached at this year’s Liverpool Acoustic Festival at the Unity Theatre.

Alexandra Jayne, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Festival 2015. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Natalie McCool, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Festival 2015, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Natalie McCool at the Unity Theatre. March 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

From supporting Go West at the Floral Pavilion to the unchartered territory of Russia, from producing one of the singles of the year so far to being thought of as an icon in music, it has been an upward trajectory that that has seen Natalie McCool take on an even greater, and well deserved importance, in the annals of North West music. In the spirit of such things, to have Natalie McCool perform at this year’s Liverpool Acoustic Festival is one to take great thanks in.

Natalie McCool, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Festival 2015, Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(467 words, 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Shannen Bamford, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Festival 2015. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Shannen Bamford, Unity Theatre, Liverpool. 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

One of the great finds on the Liverpool acoustic circuit in recent years is arguably Shannen Bamford. A voice that resonates like an angel tempting the music lover with a shot of adrenaline and comforting words when all around is filled with sorrow and pockets of despair.

Even though Ms. Bamford has other commitments that keep her disappointingly away from the venues on a full time basis, both for her and for the legion of fans that she has built up in Liverpool, when she comes on stage the realisation of just what she brings to the acoustic table is enough to stir the music passion once more.

Shannen Bamford, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Festival 2015. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(391 words, 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)