Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The irony will not be lost on the majority of Peter Gabriel’s fans that it is closer to the 26th anniversary of the release of his fifth studio album So than the 25th and they will also with no hesitation in their voices tell anyone that asks any type of awkward or disparaging question, that in the end it doesn’t matter. This is how Peter Gabriel does things and why he remains one of the most charismatic and unique figures in British music.
Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman, two artists whose contribution to the world of rock music should under no circumstances ever be dismissed to a mere foot note in the history of popular culture. In the autumn of 1977, they gave the world the first of three albums that were destined to shape a generation.
Meat Loaf’s career may have begun doing the rounds a few years earlier with performances in the musical Hair and with his first album released in 1971, the unremarkable Stoney and Meatloaf but it was his ground-breaking work with Jim Steinman that sent temperatures soaring in the October of the year when Punk was no longer a musical form of expression that could be contained and old Progressive Rock bands were feeling the force of musical rebellion.
Photograph by Ian D. Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is something very enjoyable and musically intense about a Deacon Blue concert in Liverpool. Whether it is part of the Liverpool Summer Pops Festival or as part of a national tour in support of a major anniversary, there is always a huge appreciative and very vocal audience that welcomes them to the Liverpool Echo Arena.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
To be confirmed as support for a band whose very appearance on any stage in Liverpool can send audiences into a state of apoplexy is a daunting prospect but for young singer/songwriter Azadeh it was just another step on a road that has so far been paved with exquisite and well written music.
Dannielle Malone, Paul Opacic, Nikki Sanderson in Rita, Sue and Bob Too! Photograph by Ian D. Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Tina Malone, Nikki Sanderson, Paul Opacic, Dannielle Malone, Mickey Finn, Elyn Kennedy, Paul Malone.
In 2011 Andrea Dunbar’s Rita, Sue and Bob Too! had a sell out run at the St. Helens Theatre Royal, as it comes round again it is easy to see why this portrayal of Margaret Thatcher’s council estate Britain is such a popular and long lasting hit production.
Photograph by Ian D. Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Add a dash of the exotic and mysterious Faroe Islands to a band and already the thought of the type of music you might expect from one of the young groups in the city of Liverpool creating a huge amount of talk, the exceptionally good Clean Cut Kid, and you have a group worthy of taking a huge interest in.
Clean Cut Kid are Jake Ford, Tom Ashbrook, Oliver Hardakre, Michael Halls and Greta Svabo Bech and together they appeared on stage at Leaf ready to win over a new audience and spread the ever growing word on their excellent music.
Jez Wing at Leaf. Photograph by Ian D. Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Jez Wing may have been out of the live music scene in Liverpool for a while now but that should never stop talent, in any shape or form making an impact on a crowd. When you have the aptitude of Jez Wing it is a shame to let it go to waste and thankfully for the music lovers in the city, he chose the perfect time to bring his superb music back to Leaf and a welcoming crowd.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
There are some musicians who can just stand on the stage and their very presence is enough to send a venue into rapture and unreserved ecstasy. The former lead man of the superb London band The Kinks is one such man and as Ray Davies came on stage to thunderous applause it really felt as though time had been wound backwards to the days when they were one of the most talked of and much loved groups.
Mark King in action at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Photograph by Ian D. Hall
Originally published by Liverpool Live. October 17th 2012.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
For many of their fans, Level 42 are an institution, a band whose ingenious use of funk/pop/jazz made them a household name throughout the 1980’s. They are also one of only a few bands that can tour with aplomb without having a new album in tow and also get the sort of reception from a Liverpool crowd that involves a standing ovation from the very start of the gig.
I find myself whispering to the ghosts each night,
The phantom figures, wandering uninvited in my head.
I try to placate these visions from the past
By asking quietly, “Why do you haunt me?”
And with rotting flesh, they stand still, not bothering to flee.
I whisper to the ghosts every day
From round each corner of forgotten stomping grounds.
They wave and cheer as they beg me to join them
But something in the way they sit and stare
Is enough to keep me out of their gruesome lair.