Paul Carrack, Good Feeling. Album Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 25th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Paul Carrack’s latest offering is quite simply one to savour. Good Feeling is not only the name of this excellent album but also the mood it generates as the various pieces of music drift over you is akin to the very best waking dreams and nights in front of a roaring and comforting fire.

No Doubt, Push And Shove. Album Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 25th 2012.

L.S.Media Rating *****

Gwen Stefani is back where she really belongs, back behind the microphone of one of the most original bands to come out of America in the last 20 years and seemingly having fun again with her three No Doubt male members.

Steve Harris, British Lion. Album Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 26th 2012.

L.S. Media rating ***

British Lion, two words that pretty much sum up Iron Maiden’s founder member and bass player Steve Harris. The writer of a plethora of songs from the British heavy kings has cemented Steve Harris as one of the godfathers of Heavy Metal and quite rightly so.

Now 22 years after his Iron Maiden band mate Bruce Dickinson released his debut album Tattooed Millionaire, Steve Harris has joined forces with Richard Taylor, David Hawkins, Grahame Leslie and Simon Dawson to produce an album that, might not roar like the beast it is represented by but also certainly doesn’t mew like a frightened kitten.

Green Day, Uno. Album Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 25th 2012.

Away from the last two Rock Opera specific albums that Green Day produced, the American band always managed to produce very good albums without straying too far from they stood for. Dookie was very cool and its follow up of Insomniac a step up to the big league.

This is the first of three albums due out in the next few months and worries that the group that bought such excellent songs as Wake Me Up When September Ends, the phenomenal Jesus of Suberbia and 21 Guns, have taken on a project too far look founded and it is enough to make a stone heart weep and their detractors making even louder noises of derision.

Dexy’s, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.


Kevin Rowland at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Originally Published by L.S. Media. September 25th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating *****

When the band formally known as Dexy’s Midnight Runners announced there was finally going to be a new album for their fans to listen to and digest song by song, few would have guessed what was coming. Many may have hoped for the type of music that made the band one of the most talked about and iconic of the early 1980’s. What they got was something beyond their wildest dreams and Dexy’s, as they now are, were reborn.

David Broad, Never Can Tell. Album Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 24th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

David Broad is one serious find when it comes to new music and yet his influences are more in keeping with the country and blues legends of the 20’s and 30’s and his new album Never Can Tell reflects this perfectly.

For someone who may be an unknown quantity in his native home, David has played in some very far reaching places whilst he has perfected a very obvious talent. From London and Brighton to Paris and Memphis, on a porch in Mississippi to the stage of the West Yorkshire Playhouse, if travel does indeed broaden the mind, then not only is David’s surname in keeping but his music is as well.

Peter Gabriel, Up. 10th Anniversary Retrospective.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 23rd 2012.

For fans of Peter Gabriel, Up,the seventh solo studio released by the ex-lead singer of Genesis, may be a hard one to attune to, to empathise with or even in some cases like.

This seems harsh on a man whose innovative approach to music has seen him lauded and applauded. From his early days with Genesis, through the grand scale of such works as Supper’s Ready, Selling England By The Pound and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and into his own solo career with the eponymous self titled albums and finally the riveting and extraordinary So, he touched so many minds and hearts with his incredible lyrics and mind for the utter dramatic and search for some sort of mythical musical lost city of gold.

The Wedding Singer, Theatre Review. St Helens Theatre Royal.

The cast of The Wedding Singer. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 22nd 2012.

L. S. Media Rating ***

Cast: Michael John Griesen, Cameron Jones, Anthony Mackin, Katie Speakman, Jennie Scully, Gary Lamb, Jean Aspinall, Diane Glover, Ann Connolly, James Kirby.

It is always a challenge transferring any successful film to the stage, adapting it, playing with idea but never straying very far from what it was that made it that sensation in the first place. The Wedding Singer is no different to say Legally Blonde or Spamalot in that respect and for the Pilkington Musical Theatre, The Wedding Singer was a joy to perform and to watch.

Nik Kershaw, Gig Review. O2 Academy, Liverpool.

Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 22nd 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

A night of two halves joined by a very talented individual thread, that is the key behind Nik Kershaw’s fantastic night at the Liverpool o2 Academy show,.  It was a night where both performer and audience reminisced in the depths of music and came up with a set list that defied time and made the most of some of the excellent new songs from his latest album.

Billy Joel, The Nylon Curtain. 30th Anniversary Retrospective.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 22nd 2012.

Although Billy Joel hasn’t released a hit studio album for a while, at one point his music could be heard almost everywhere. From the embryonic beginnings of M.T.V. and radio stations all over The United States of America and Europe, you couldn’t escape the talented piano player or his catchy and infectious music.