Category Archives: Live

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The Stranglers at the Liverpool Academy, March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

The next time the Beast from the East decides to make an appearance on Britain’s shores, the best form of defence against this cyclonic severe cold and snow would be to tap the resources of a room full of Stranglers fans and then allow the heat to pour out onto the streets in the surrounding areas; the cold of the last few weeks would not have stood a chance as they took in the sounds of a band still rightly considered, the definitive article.

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(476 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Therapy?, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Therapy at the o2 Academy in Liverpool, March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

You can over analyse and seek treatment for almost anything, the small ailment through to the overriding sense of disassociation of the age, healing comes with talking and yet there is only one suitable cure for the way the world has turned, and a night of Therapy? is always the best of the Doctor’s orders.

Therapy?, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(450 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Stick In The Wheel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Stick In The Wheel at the Music Rooms of the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Pursue the secrets of the inscription long enough and you will find hope, salvation of spirit, or if you are fortunate and the gods of the quest are with you, another adventure in which to delve straight into, to place your trust into the symbols, gestures and lyrical sense of groove in which the hardiest of explorers light and a candle, pull back the veil and shout from the heavens that it is a marvel to behold and that you should Follow Them True.

Stick In The Wheel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool. full post

(475 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

The Bad Flowers, Gig Review. Asylum 2, Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Bad Flowers at Asylum 2, Birmingham. Photograph reproduced with kind permission by Mark Varney and Noble PR.

If you are not ready, focused and with your eyes trained on the 10 yards beyond the finishing line then no matter how hard you try, you won’t hear the Starting Gun and before you know it that finishing line has been reached and the possible enjoyment, the statement of intent and your mark upon the world has been sabotaged by your own reluctance to see how great you could have been.

The Bad Flowers, Gig Review. Asylum 2, Birmingham. full post

(502 words, 1 image, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Those Damn Crows, Gig Review. Asylum 2, Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Those Damn Crows at Asylum 2, Birmingham. February 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The dragon lives long and breathes fire that catches everything around it alight, the initial spark that comes from the belly of the beast is soon glowing furnace hot and finds a way to demonstrate its wrath. The anger at having been penned in by a society that understands nothing of why the burning issues of the day are important, why just because one person is doing alright, that another should be ridiculed and shamed for not being able to see above the shoulders of those above them.

Those Damn Crows, Gig Review. Asylum 2, Birmingham. full post

(488 words, 1 image, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Go West And Nik Kershaw, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If you can remember the 80s with a glorious smile and the passion of a beating heart rampaging through single after single of dominating pop and the explosion of culture that surrounded it, then you are one of that rare breed that wasn’t hemmed in and surrounded completely by the post-war early boom of rock and roll and neither were you fooled by the arrival of the almost far too beautiful but in some eyes sulky, almost akin to drama filled, 90s that followed.

Go West And Nik Kershaw, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(597 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Cutting Crew, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Time changes almost everything, fashion is lauded and then debunked in the blink of an eye, ideologies are stamped upon, new regimes of popularity take the clothes off the previous holders of the once admired and trend setting and claim that they thought of it first; time changes everything but the respect due to a band to whom can hold an audience’s attention and give them the insight into what made their music impossibly beautiful.

Cutting Crew, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Paul Carrack, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Paul Carrack at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, February 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Unless you are part of the esteemed Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, you don’t see that many musicians performing a two night stand at the prestigious venue; it isn’t that it is not the done thing, it just happens that way, performers take to the stage, they give the audience the respect they are due and the harmony of expression and hopeful love, then they move onto the next town, perhaps only stopping to take a look at the city in daylight hours, rekindling a memory of their own before the bus and their equipment drives on.

Paul Carrack, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(543 words, 1 image, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Grainne Duffy, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

When you witness a musician completely stun an audience with an awe-inspiring, almost transcendent, reading of an Etta James classic, then you know you are in the presence of someone who, if Time decrees, will take the hearts and minds of crowds to come that they might never have thought possible. That in this otherwise night of a sort of second homecoming for the main event of Sheffield’s Paul Carrack to a favourite venue in a city he obviously loves, that Ireland’s Grainne Duffy would come into the lives of the Liverpool audience and simply blow them away with her charm, depth and voice.

Grainne Duffy, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

The Classic Rock Show, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Classic Rock Show, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. February 2018. Photograph used with the permission of David Munn Photography.

There are times in your life, if you have been fortunate to have been bitten by the bug that salivates over the pleasurable moans of a well played guitar and the heartbeat rising when the drum kicks in, the bass and the somehow deep and meaningful lyrics come into play and the recognition that the song reflects not only your mood but your life, it is those times that you know that Classic Rock has got down deep and personal in your life and the song, no matter how much it remains the same, is there to be loved and remembered.

The Classic Rock Show, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(470 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)