Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The question always hangs in the air on how Lydia understands, perhaps she is tune with the moment in which Dean Friedman plays to the receptive and knowing audiences in which ever city he finds himself performing, playing to crowds who do more than understand the appeal of geniality and genius in equal measure, they recognise and identify with the common touch held in the hands of the musician, and the soul of the poet.
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Steve Harley at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. March 2019. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
There are moments when you recognise just what the simple act of singing as an audience to the performer who has had you gripped in their words and music for a couple of hours can do to them, the acknowledgement that love is mutual, that this simple act can reduce them to a stunned state of happiness and perhaps sees them leave the stage with their emotional state of self-criticism reduced to the point of non-existence, lost for words but thanking all who can see their face as they move to the wings with the symbolic gesture of the nod of the head, the motion of reciprocated appreciation.
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Give someone the chance to surprise you and they will undoubtedly take the opportunity provided and then credit it you when it matters, in their performance, in the way they stand up on any stage the world will provide, and then act with absolute decorum and pleasure.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
A Foreigners Journey, Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. February 2019. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
To tackle and cover the songs and emotional response of one of the greatest and intensely loved bands of all time is one thing, to do justice to two, that takes more than just the idea of a tribute, it is a carnival of appreciation brought to life as if it was theatre, a series of beautifully balanced songs, highs, expectations and genuine love for a genre’s creativity.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Occasionally life grants you a moment to look beyond the emerald veil, the eyes of the wizard looking down on you with kindness rather than mischief, a single glance at a performer who embraces a feeling of non-conformity but who has the range to delight and make music seem simple, honest and with just the right amount of poetry in their soul in which to open your heart to them.
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We are only human after all, and we can all be lured by the seemingly ripe berries of another bush but in the end we always return cap in hand and contrite to a love that remains undiminished, one that greets us with a broad grin, a smile that is enchanting and real, not one engrossed in delivering a plastic set of rules. Instead, one who will come out on stage and perform with natural ease that time doesn’t just fly in their company, it purrs like a finely tuned vehicle along crowded British streets and one that the driver is more than happy to show you every single point of interest along the way.
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There is no such thing as the background, no place where silence can truly be the dominating factor, not when you are an artist. It matters not where the artist resides, their field, their chosen place of expression, what others may consider to be a place of no production, is in fact a factory of ideas being turned over, modified, refined, tested and worried over; just because you don’t understand the process in which the artist has to find that special muse, does not mean they aren’t being productive.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
In the voice of a siren, a person can feel their cares gently swept away, they can be swayed by the temper and the tempting and the listener is always grateful for the experience, forever in debt to the swirling thoughts of the tempest and the chance to feel the beauty in the combination of the rage and the placid call to which the siren sings.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are those that will always make a great marriage, a union which is reflected in the way the other side of the pair will always look to the other with hope in their eyes and love in their hearts; celebrated Scottish vocalist and musician Eddi Reader is that kind of performer and human being to whom the relationship with the audience is more than special, it is a marriage of souls and mutual appreciation to which continues to flourish and resonate each time she appears on stage.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Time, as noted by the singer and the audience, is a peculiar animal, it can snarl all it wants, it can find ways to give new perspective to eras in which some saw the end of a kind of order and were frightened by the prospect and in which other relished and rubbed their hands in glee as the future and bold vision opened up before them.