Tag Archives: Liverpool

The Rails, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Certain traits and particular talents are always handed down through the D.N.A. but it takes lots of hard work on behalf of the receiver of such good fortune to make their talent shine through and seem as effortless as breathing in fresh air.

For Kamila Thompson, the daughter of arguably one of the finest Folk/Rock music writers of the last 50 years, and James Walbourne, collectively known as The Rails, to perform for the Philharmonic Hall crowd ahead of Richard Thompson long anticipated night in Liverpool was one that was shrouded in a type of delicate cool and inspiring vocal delivery.

The Rails, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Richard Thompson, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

For many, Richard Thompson is the voice of the bereft and the forgotten, the loud speaker against injustice and arguably the British Folk equivalent of Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. It is easy to see why when he performs in such determined spirit and absolute certainty of belief in front of a Liverpool audience that hung upon every one of his words as if following a gospel sermon and to whom as the night finished with the pulse of a musical manifesto from his long and outstanding career still ringing in the ears, rose as one to give a standing ovation that was clear, concise and rampant with pleasure.

Richard Thompson, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(469 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Paul Dunbar, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Paul Dunbar at the Bluecoat, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Paul Dunbar doesn’t work that often without his tremendous band, The Midnight Ramble, thundering with exquisite charm beside him and the sound of a thousand instruments all begging for that brief but beautiful solo spot in which to extol the virtues of one of Liverpool’s finest young bands. However, when he does it is with the same resounding belief and great bundles of effort he puts into the group arena and it shows as always, great humility and tremendous authority.

Paul Dunbar, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool. full post

(402 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Anthony Cunningham, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Anthony Cunningham at the Bluecoat, Liverpool. September 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It’s when you hear a song being taken to its vocal extremes that you realise just how good someone is and you that you find yourself making a note in your diary to check out when the possibility of catching them again will arise; it is at that moment when art in any of its forms speaks out to you.

Anthony Cunningham, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool. full post

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

Yarbo, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Yarbo at the Bluecoat, September 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

September in the Bluecoat Garden has the type of ring to it that should be preserved in a sonnet or the wild imaginings of Liverpool’s Roger McGough. It is the poetic statement that deserves its own Blue Plaque and with the acknowledgement that Adrian Henri sat here and contemplated the form and gave to the world freely. Yet as the chimes of 1p.m. sounded somewhere in the city, the quietly resolute garden, the abundance of music lovers sat or stood with patience and fortitude for the coming day of music ahead, Yarbo took to the stage and played with freedom and mutual understanding.

Yarbo, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track, The Bluecoat, Liverpool. full post

(367 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke, Nick Offerman, Connie Britton, Molly Shannon, Jon Bernthal, Katherine C. Hughes, Matt Bennett, Masam Holden, Bobb’e J. Thompson, Gavin Dietz, Edward DeBruce III, Natalie Marchelletta, Chelsea Zhang, Marco Zappela, Kaza Marie Ayersman, Etta Cox, Karriem Sami, Hugh Jackman.

Coming of age films can leave a bitter feeling in the mouth, not through the quality of the film but in how they are perceived to make older audiences feel.

Me And Earl And The Dying Girl, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(560 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Dope, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Blake Anderson, Rakim Mayers, Kimberly Elise, Chanel Iman, Roger Guenveur Smith, Forest Whitaker, Rick Fox, Bruce Beatty.

Pre-conceptions of someone’s abilities or life is perhaps arguably one of the worst ways in which to underestimate them or even under value them as human beings. It is prejudice by any other name and a bias that can have startling consequences when they turn and bite you where the sun refuses to shine.

Dope, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(455 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Best Of Enemies, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In an age of political pygmies and silent observers often too scared to say the wrong thing in case it hurts in the popularity stakes, to look back upon the series of debates which overshadowed the Republican and Democratic conventions of 1968 is to step into another world.

Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon’s Best of Enemies is one of those documentaries that comes out of nowhere but delights the political beast inside from the first reels and stays to conquer with its juicy commentary and ravishing pay off; it is a documentary that many might shy away from but it is to their detriment that they do so.

Best Of Enemies, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(540 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

The Wolfpack, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Everybody has a right to have their story told, if not how do we learn to accept other points of view and then debate them with clarity and insightfulness. It is the rise of the documentary in the modern age that lifts a lid onto how others were raised so that we might glean how the adult turns out and how they have been influenced by their surroundings.

The Wolfpack, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Shoes4brakes, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Garden, Kazimier, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If there were medals for coaxing the sunshine back into the day and dismissing the rain that soaked Liverpool for the best part of a couple of hours, then Shoes4brakes would be arriving home with more decorations than Usain Bolt coming back from China with his tied around his waist and with Mo Farrah’s secretly stashed in his holdall.

The weather of course is but a side show to the main event, the collective power of wonderful persuasion that the twosome bring to the stage should not be easily dismissed, for to do so plays scorn upon the whole Liverpool music experience and that is something which should be sought out and spanked for its impudence and dishonour.

Shoes4brakes, Gig Review. Liverpool Acoustic Garden, Kazimier, Liverpool. full post

(368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)