Category Archives: Live

The Waterboys, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Anniversaries are special, they remind us just how far we have come in the search for ourselves and our time at the helm of our own personal blues, our backdrop of the fiddle pulsating away between the lyrics of the song we sing, as we take a pen to the wall and cross off yet another year, another celebration in the pursuit of an added dream. We cross off the years and then we look back, we survey the happiness and sometimes sour and we revel in them, for it is in the life we live that makes the anniversary special.

The Waterboys, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(430 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

I, The Lion. Gig Review. Craft Taproom, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There in the deep heart of England’s countryside town of Cheltenham, a place that holds secrets and listens in to the chatter, gossip and state sponsored espionage, a town surrounded by the thought of the country’s green and pleasant land, is the roar of the unexpected, of the disquiet and arguably unrest against the rule of tyranny dressed in shining suits and old school money; there is bellow calling out in this heart land of conservatism and rigid social structure and one that has I, The Lion as the leader of this surprising, but ultimately welcome, fight back against pre-conceived ideas and demanding social inequality.

I, The Lion. Gig Review. Craft Taproom, Liverpool. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Nickelback, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2018).

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We all cannot be rock stars, we all can not all be heroes to the world, yet we do something that is heroic and takes real guts and determination, it can be a rock star choice, we can stop the hate, not just on certain genres but on people too, countries, individuals, we can bring an end to the practise of self proclaimed abhorrence to that which we either don’t understand or which we confess to never listening to in the first place.

Nickelback, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(478 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Memory Girl, Gig Review. Craft Taproom, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Embrace the change of revolution, the quake of personal transformation, for if you look closely under the skin, what you find is not conversion but innovation, an advancement in the original and yet one with all the attributes, positivity and panache that first came along and made you sit up and take notice of the uniqueness in the initial meeting.

It is to one of the much loved performers that has lit up the Liverpool scene in the last decade, Natalie McCool, that innovation, change, revolution has come along and gone on to prove that form is always temporary, and that class is permanent.

Memory Girl, Gig Review. Craft Taproom, Liverpool. full post

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

Dean Friedman, Gig Review. Capstone Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are some people on this planet to whom the gift of a smile in their direction is not enough to display the gratitude we owe them for making us happy, for giving us a gift of happiness that can never be fully repaid; some artists, family and friends deserve the longest of hugs and the full appreciation of a room of warm and loving applause, some will never perhaps know just how the simple act of a single song written means the world to thousands.

Dean Friedman, Gig Review. Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Liza Pulman Sings Streisand, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

“A little bit of Babs, a whole lot of brass”, is how Liza Pulman cheekily described the evening, the sparkle in her eyes giving the game away from the very start and the polished brass of The Brighouse and Rastrick Band giving the evening the absolute beauty that an appreciation of Barbra Streisand deserved.

Liza Pulman Sings Streisand, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(423 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Marillion, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Steve Hogarth of Marillion, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, April 2018. Photograph used with the kind permission of Gordon Fleming.

It has been a long time since Marillion stepped over the Merseyside border, that near international boundary that separates the city of Liverpool from the U.K., not built in myth but in the very nature of its home grown and adopted sons and daughters strength of purpose and identity. As Steve Hogarth was heard to say during one enjoyable exchange of banter and nicely placed heckle, “We really are in another country now”.

Marillion, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(497 words, 1 image, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Roxanne de Bastion, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

One of Liverpool’s own, a performer who has been long associated with the city, a musician of high integrity and blushing music, one who for quite some time has deserved the accolades that come with a night at the Philharmonic Hall; in Roxanne de Bastion’s supporting of Marillion on this tour, to come back to Liverpool, to immerse herself within the friends she made and in the city where her latest album is held as an example of the heights that can be reached, that is now the position that all should be attaining.

Roxanne de Bastion, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Magnum, Gig Review. Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When we were younger…a mere step or the beat of a chord from where Magnum used to practise in the fabled Rum Runner Club and within the shadow of memories of being arguably the finest of bands to have the Birmingham stamp placed upon its history and resume, the Symphony Hall played host to the band, and in a reversal of fortunes of weather, no longer put off by the snow and devastation of postponed music, instead it was the heat and sheer intensity of the homecoming gig to which the end of the tour will always be remembered.

Magnum, Gig Review. Symphony Hall, Birmingham. full post

(430 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Rebecca Downes, Gig Review. Symphony Hall, Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

With a little help from your friends, you cannot ask for more in life except having the drive to be the very best version of yourself possible, both of these states of mind are there to remind you that you have a responsibility to perform and take in the very immense situations that you may find yourself within, that the song, the smile and the swagger, are there because the world demands beauty in the face of possible oppression.

Rebecca Downes, Gig Review. Symphony Hall, Birmingham. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)