Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The natural charm of Britain’s Southwesterly dominions, Somerset, Devon and of course the free spirited Cornwall, is never in question, what it takes though is observant eyes and a striking soul in which to capture it and put into art; a tough ask in a world where fragile beauty, even in its most rugged form, is not universally enjoyed and appreciated.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The beat never fades, the sound of Merseyside, of Liverpool alleyways, of the grasp of the real and the determination to show that everything in life is valuable, that it has a reason to be there; all is revealed when Space get up on stage and rock the joint to its foundations.
Having been on tour since the middle of November, to come back home and perform in a venue that offers musicians so much scope, so much entertaining backdrop to each lyrical syllable that can be ground out of each instrument, is surely the success that all performers ain for; the sound of their own enjoying what surely must be considered amongst the very best of nights in the year.
Maaike Brejman performing as Dreaming Of Kate at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The elusiveness of Kate Bush, arguably one of the great female recording acts that Britain has produced in the last 50 years, as a stage performer is always keenly felt by those whose love of her special concoction of dance and magical lyrics. The decades that have passed, the sense of falling in love to someone whose music has defined much of how the public certain segments of time, all missed, all grieved over and whilst quite rightly Ms. Bush is lauded for her music, the sense of loss is always there.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Perhaps the comparison should be noted between Cara Dillon and the subject of one of her songs which ended up as both a hit for Disney but also the bane of her young daughter’s life. Not for the fairy-like appeal but in the delicate nature of her voice that has the consistency of refreshing spring water running playfully down the hills of her native Northern Ireland and the image of thousand Cabbage White Butterflies let loose on the wings of a delicate breeze.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The young Cornishman on stage at the Epstein Theatre defies the image many may have of the county as being in league of wanting separation from the U.K., an image wrongly held by those in London and in the grasping power halls of the Westminster Village as being aloof from the country, insular, narrow minded and the prefect representation of the wildness of the untamed south, a wildness they see unflatteringly in the North of the line that divides their own minds. It is an image that Joe Francis happily shatters as he muses and sings of a greater inclusive nature that all artists hope for.
Dean Friedman at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. October 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The city that doesn’t know how to stop singing is always enhanced by a visitor of repute from beyond its natural domain. Many of the greats from across the seas, from beyond the realms in which the Atlantic Ocean divides and sometimes conquers as it crashes into the cliffs and harbours and steals moment after moment of time and crumbling portions of land, have made their way to Liverpool to remind the city that America and the musical empire of Britain are forever linked and entwined.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
It seems hard to believe that Liverpool had never had the pleasure of hosting Joanne Shaw Taylor before, that in all the years the absolute blistering sound that comes from arguably the Queen of British Blues had never dominated the Liverpool skyline, had never been heard in a huddled teeming mass before and had only been cherished in various houses, in the front rooms and bedrooms of the enlightened and the reverential.
Federal Charm at The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. October 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
British Rock and Blues is in arguably the healthiest state that it has had the pleasure to be in for many years. The renaissance of the genres has perhaps come at the expense of the U.K.’s prime export of Heavy Metal and in many cases the once dominant pop scene and culture but for The Blues none of that matters; rude health it seems does come at a cost somewhere else upon the many lines.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
There is impressive and then there is confident, to have both relative strangers on stage at the same time is a rare commodity in which to draw breath, exhale deeply at the thought and then just let your heart go with it. For the confident and the impressive will always take the breath away, you may as well surrender fully and let the air escape your lungs voluntarily than let the preposterous and beige tell you that what you are seeing on stage is nothing, for those twin shades of humanity know nothing.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The pleasure in life is almost uncontainable when you come across a support act to a superstar who are not just un-bloodied and unbowed by being on the same bill, they are treated by that main act as equals, soldiers and comrades on the front line together, locked arm in arm and heading with strange insurmountable vigour towards the same goal.
For The Alan Kelly Gang, that sense of equality, of musical parity is one that is taken with great joy and sense of obligation to deliver a set of music that is beyond reproach and keenly felt all the way through their set.