Focus, Focus X. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

One of the archetypical Progressive Rock bands and undoubtedly one of the finest to have come from mainland Europe, Focus, have come up trumps again with their brand new album Focus X.

Focus may be described as legendary; however there isn’t a word in existence to express how much they are revered, despite poor critical acclaim on some of their albums in the lean period of their tenure as one of Europe’s most important Prog bands. Since the group was resurrected for the Focus 8 album in 2002, their following has returned and so has the excitement of listening to this genuinely unique and fantastic band.

Focus, Focus X. Album Review. full post

(427 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Joe Symes And Colin White

Liverpool and its surrounding areas that make up Merseyside have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to music. Nowhere it seems is the abundance of bands so heavily noticeable as the city of Liverpool that The Beatles, the likes of The Icicle Works, Gerry and the Pacemakers and Space and a whole load of other groups and singers called home and in which the last ten years the new breed of musicians have come to regard as the place where it is good to be from.

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(1579 words, 1 image, estimated 6:19 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Mary Coughlan.

Photograph by Michael Kelly

Mary Coughlan is a born survivor and a woman of extreme passion who is able to sing straight from the heart. Since releasing her debut album in 1985 on Mystery Records, Tired and Emotional, Mary has gone on to record some truly classic songs in her own indomitable and exciting manner.

This year sees Ms. Coughlan come to Liverpool as part of the Liverpool-Irish Festival 10th anniversary celebrations and Mary will be performing as part of this at St. George’s Hall on the 18th October and whilst resting at home after performing to packed out shows in Sweden, I was able to catch up with the Irish singing sensation ahead of the festival.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Mary Coughlan. full post

(948 words, 1 image, estimated 3:48 mins reading time)

R.E.M. Automatic For The People. 20th Anniversary Retrospective.

Although R.E.M. had been around for many years, by the time Automatic for the People came out in 1992, the excitement and rush it caused in their long term fans could be seen as finally over-spilling into mainstream appeal.

The band had finally broken both the U.K. and American top ten with their previous album Out of Time and with Automatic for the People they cemented their position as one of the great alternative/rock band of the period. The four musicians that made up the band seemed to pick the right time to come of age, making their way through a very pop dominated 1980’s in which to start with they barely troubled the U.K. charts, through the power period dominated by bands such as Heart/Whitesnake/T’Pau and finally were in the position to be among the bands that were sweeping aside the celebrity culture of pop inspired false personality.

R.E.M. Automatic For The People. 20th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(1088 words, 1 image, estimated 4:21 mins reading time)

Genesis, Foxtrot. 40th Anniversary Retrospective.

Genesis, especially the classic line up of Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford and Steve Hackett would become one of the U.K.’s favourite Progressive Rock bands on the strength of the 1972 album Foxtrot.

This eccentric band packed to the rafters with burgeoning talent had already broken parts of Europe with Trespass and the charming Nursery Cryme but as had up to that point failed to break the U.K top 20 album chart. Their first album From Genesis to Revelation had failed to convince the British public that their music was worth listening to, Trespass saw them make inroads and Nursery Cryme make friends, it was however the pastoral feel combined with an abundance of British eccentricity that would convince music listeners that these five performers had something worthwhile to say.

Genesis, Foxtrot. 40th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(1191 words, 1 image, estimated 4:46 mins reading time)

The Fifth Movement, A Roll Of The Dice. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

As the Kevin Critchley Outfit they were brutally good, interesting and gave one excellent show after another As The Fifth Movement, the same burning desire to bring out some of the most interesting music still rings true, however there seems to be an edge, a sympathetic ruthlessness, that pervades across the E.P., A Roll of the Dice, which just is outstandingly clever and musically satisfying.

The Fifth Movement, A Roll Of The Dice. E.P. Review. full post

(341 words, 1 image, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

Paul Straws, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Paul Straws might not be a name that the vast majority of music listeners in Liverpool and the surrounding area are aware of just yet but with his impish grin and delectable guitar playing, it won’t be too long before the music lovers of the city catch him somewhere.

Coming on stage at Leaf can be pretty daunting. It’s not a large area for sure but its close knit proximity to the audience means that there is nowhere to hide for someone who is anyway self-conscious or worse self-absorbed.

Paul Straws, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(382 words, 1 image, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Damien Dempsey, Almighty Love. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *****

There is no other way to describe the Irish singer Damien Dempsey than incredibly imposing in his natural gift of poetic words that shine like a beacon across from Dublin Bay and point out the injustice that still pervades across both countries that straddle the Irish Sea and imposing in his stature and honesty.

It is this talent, this raw, unflinching and thankfully untameable man that brings the songs of his life, that of the still forgotten people of that part of Ireland and the growing number of disposed and disenfranchised people beyond it which makes his new album, Almighty Love, such a remarkable and perfect statement.

Damien Dempsey, Almighty Love. Album Review. full post

(346 words, 1 image, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Muse, The 2nd Law. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ***

There comes a time in a groups, hopefully distinguished career, where a listener may stop and think, well that was good but it wasn’t really as awesome as everybody raved on and on about. That might be the case with Muse’s sixth album The 2nd Law.

One of the band’s great strengths over the last few albums is the absolute conviction that they have created something approaching unique, something nothing less than genuinely superb and out of this world. Even including Black Holes and Revelations into this equation, which after quite a few plays revealed an album that wasn’t quite up to scratch, full of pit falls and loosely tied together with some very appealing songs as Map of the Problematique and Invincible, it still suited the canon and the ways of Muse.

Muse, The 2nd Law. Album Review. full post

(448 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Burning Prince. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 165

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ****

Cast: Peter Davison, Caroline Langrishe, Clive Mantle, George Rainsford, Dominic Rowan, Derek Hutchinson, Caroline Keiff, Tim Treloar, Kirsty Besterman.

It is unusual to find the fifth Doctor’s incarnation adrift in time and space without any of his much loved companions keeping a watchful eye on him, to bounce their anxieties off him or even just to make sure he stays on the right side of compassion. This latest story from Big Finish, The Burning Prince, sees the fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison, do exactly that and it is a surprisingly frightening prospect.

Doctor Who, The Burning Prince. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 165 full post

(506 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)