Category Archives: Live

Joe Brown, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are institutions, there are legends and then if you are lucky enough, if you have the fortune and interest of spirit coursing through your veins, then there are those to whom British music owes not just a debt of thanks, but a rather large cheque that can never be cashed or exchanged. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Take That, Bananarama, Atomic Kitten, Kate Bush, without the likes of Tommy Steele, Billy Fury and Joe Brown leading the way from the very start, arguably the British music scene would have looked an awful lot different.

Joe Brown, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(566 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Vanessa Murray, Gig Review. Thornton Hough. Wirral.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A new year brings new opportunities, the chance it seems to shed old skin, to find a way to look at the world and say in a loud, clear and utterly devastatingly luxurious voice, “You’re mine“.

The complicated relationship we have with time is such that those we come to believe are special, somehow slip further from our sight, we find that it is impossible to keep up with their star, with their purpose and drive, and that in turn becomes a kind of sadness when we realise just how much they have gone through in between one day and the next.

Vanessa Murray, Gig Review. Thornton Hough. Wirral. full post

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

Only Child, Gig Review. Thornton Hough, Wirral.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A poet is a rare thing, especially when they carry a guitar, sing songs of beauty and despair, of anger and peace, in the same set and often in the same tune. A poet doesn’t have to found nervously thumbing their notes behind a curtain waiting for the time honoured introduction, or putting their demands down in a flourished way which is hidden by the obscure and sometimes cryptic.

Only Child, Gig Review. Thornton Hough, Wirral. full post

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

Maddie Stenberg, Gig Review. Thornton Hough, Wirral.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Confidence is an amazing thing, it can tear down mountains, raise the seas, and give you something that doesn’t come naturally, it gives you the ability to understand just how far you can push yourself. To hear it being sung with such exuberance and in its demurest form is to know that the musician on stage doesn’t just want to succeed themselves, they want you to feel that you also can take on the world and at least play it at its own game and with a level playing field.

Maddie Stenberg, Gig Review. Thornton Hough, Wirral. full post

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

The Selecter, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Art Comes First, those three words must be true, not only does the enigmatic and iconic Pauline Black declare it on the back of her jacket inside the Liverpool Olympia, in her presence on stage, in the way this woman to whom the world stops and trembles because of her honest and forthright views, shouted in many different phrases between songs, the small whisper of love and the wonderful sneered boom of derision to those who make life difficult for anyone who has an ounce of creativity in their bones.

The Selecter, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The Beat, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The beat remains important, without it, without that palpitation in the chest, the rhythm in the soul and the expectation of the overwhelming passion for life, then what is the point of existence, it would just come down to a series of 0 and 1s, to the coldness of science and the drudgery of only letting off steam in a calculated, disciplined way. The beat, that recurring, rhythmic resonating in each of us if we listen closely, that is the sound of being alive and passionate. It is sound that The Beat remember and offer with charm and dexterity of purpose and it is still the one that snaps the fingers and makes the heart jump for joy.

The Beat, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool. full post

(529 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Kate Rusby, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Christmas means something different to everybody, whether they celebrate it or not, whether it is in the joy of family, togetherness, being with friends, surrounded by strangers but with a common love in which to bond, or in just the thought of a set of songs that grab their attention and make the time of year more thoughtful, reflective, even for some bearable. Music is what binds all when the first drops of snow hit the ground and the carol singers can be found with lamps in hand, a weapon against the darkness of the northern sky.

Kate Rusby, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Paul Heaton And Jacqui Abbott, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It could be Rotterdam, Rome or anywhere but as December’s cruel thoughts turn to the end of the year, as the office parties began to stack up and the songs from karaoke machines began to rotate on mass, there is in amongst the freeze to come the knowledge that it is Liverpool that Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott once again find themselves in and producing a night of music in which to dance and reflect the night away.

Paul Heaton And Jacqui Abbott, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(523 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Queen + Adam Lambert, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Adam Lambert at the Echo Arena, Liverpool. November 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The entrance tickets would have been smouldering away in the pockets of the audience for months, they would have been hidden in secret draws and in the realms of closets, opened every so often just to make sure they were still there, not squirreled away by jealous borrowers or fanatical fans who had not been able to secure a ticket of their own. On a night which temptation was possible, in which the heat of the performance would have burst into raptures of flames; Queen and Adam Lambert made good on a long standing unspoken promise and came to Liverpool to raise the roof.

Queen + Adam Lambert, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(553 words, 1 image, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Hazel O’ Connor, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

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.

Hazel O’ Connor, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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