Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating * * * * *
Kiss in Birmingham, May 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
The art of the showman may entail many effects, a stage full of experience, the sprinkle of dust wherever possible, the unrelenting passion to pull off the impossible and the big sonic boom in which to thrill the audience with, that moment in which a crowd goes nuts, in which the night was well and truly owned by the fantastic and the sheer delightful.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The Queen of British Blues, the undoubted reigning monarch playing the guitar as if it was permanently attached to her, never letting go, never surrendering the pinnacle in which she has rightly attained; this is the realm of Joanne Shaw Taylor, a woman of creative Blues and the Queen of the Birmingham Town Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is the type of bill in which any self respecting lover of Rock might have to believe there was a possibility that Heaven might actually exist but it was to be found at the entrance to the motorways that surround Birmingham and be the spiritual home of the Rock and Metal extravaganza for the U.K. If the thought of Whitesnake and Def Leppard wasn’t enough to start salivating over then the opening act on the night, the exceptional Black Star Riders was surely enough to have the thought of a great Rock night out, arguably the last great one in the Birmingham area before Christmas, explode like the contents of the finest bottle of Balvenie onto the taste buds.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is entirely possible to believe that the structure that holds the Genting Arena together had only just stopped quaking from the previous visit of Metallica, that the combined forces of Black Star Riders, Whitesnake and now Sheffield’s finest Rock act Def Leppard were about to dislodge the settled dust and explode it down to its constituent atoms, that Metallica, for all their glory, were just a warm up act a few years back up the line for what was about to explode in the centre of the Midlands.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
As the Genting Arena, the latest name for the building passes in British music history as the old N.E.C., the stomping ground for nights in which the upbeat Blues and the pomp and ceremony associated with reverential Rock, the heavy guitar and the glorious pounding smile of satisfaction of sweat dripping down from the forehead, was plunged into darkness, a traditional meaty track came over the speakers and filled the hall with heart thumping gravitas and expectation.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The clock ticks down with strength and purpose as the black clouds of unimpressive rain and chocked down November days hit the Birmingham Streets. The Bristol Road, once a serene setting for W.H. Auden as he meandered back home in which to place a timely piece of prosaic poetry, is now lined with the signs of two of the “Big Four” of American Thrash Metal adorned on T-shirts and the rightful acknowledgement that Birmingham is the true home of Metal.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There is an easy going charm that cannot be ignored when it comes to watching Robert Cray on stage, the deferential that meets the cool and the understated charismatic. The smile in the beautifully creative that greets each song with a polite hello and then plays with each string as if it’s attached to an angel’s heart, sometimes being as rough as the angel likes and causing a blush on the cheeks of the cherubs. At other points smooth, joyous and almost velvet like in its sincerity; it is the charm and ability of a man who knows which angel likes it which way and which has the touch of the Devil in them.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The love you take is equal to the love you make” sang McCartney’s sampled voice, mixed with some beats by the support DJ. It brought to an end the pre-show photo montage, which was accompanied by some fairly entertaining remixes of classic tracks.
Eschewing standard practice of the star following the rest of the band, Paul McCartney shuffled onto the empty stage alone, holding his signature Hofner bass…to a massive roar of the crowd, naturally. This humble manner was evident throughout the show. His in-between song banter is stilted and almost bashful; the polar opposite to his arguably over-rehearsed, P.R. style interview technique. McCartney realises that in the live situation, he doesn’t have to indulge in long introductions or throw rock star shapes. Rather, his astounding back catalogue does the talking and is actually the real star of the show.
Mike Peters at the Birmingham Academy, March 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The message of the night was simple, that the power of love, hope and strength is an overriding force of nature which can help overcome the widest of chasms, the tallest of mountains and can hold the attention of a sold out audience right down to the newest of fans who weren’t alive when the century started, let alone those that have been on board The Alarm train for over 30 years.
As you watch the news night after night,
the small tremble of fear they put in the voice of the ageing reporter
as they present their slant on the events,
that make us read their sister papers in grim earnest over
a badly presented cup of coffee, foaming
at the mouth as the headline is designed to irk, cajole
and inwardly terrify…
That the news, the encompassing truth, run by the moral guardians
who defend their freedom of speech
but who will gladly come knocking
with their size nine hob nail boots,