Tag Archives: Gig Review. Studio 2

Neal John Oade, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

 

There is folk music, then there is the granddaddy of the genre, the music that the immensity of the last 50 years owes as much a debt to the past as we, as listeners, owe the struggles and bravery of musicians such as Woody Guthrie, Ewan MacColl and Hamish Imlach. That granddaddy, the songs of the people in centuries past survive because they have a resonating truth that haunts every generation and stings them into some sort of resistance. The resistance might not take hold or be very strong but they at least leave a tangible fingerprint in which to remind that injustice should not stand.

Neal John Oade, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

(537 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Dawn Landes, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

January, the month when all things hide, when put up the cold toes closer to the roaring fire and flicking through the holiday brochures whilst wearing more wool than a confused and overheating sheep wandering around in the Tasmanian wilderness, it takes something special to really get the heart thumping hard to even think of leaving the safety of the home in the cruel, harsh month.

Dawn Landes, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

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

The Good Host, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are people under a certain age that wouldn’t be aware of the lyrical prowess of those that lived on the musical hall stage. Those seemingly immortal beings who could somehow rattle out a story with an accompanying piano and a small cigarette wistfully burning away inside its porcelain holder, seem at times, to be Gods who belong to a different age. In the modern day there is no need for the smoke, for the exuberant glint of porcelain and the outlandish lyric once favoured by the likes of Noel Coward…

The Good Host, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(354 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Matthew McGurty, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Winter is such a cruel and heartless master. If you are not careful, it becomes far too easy to sit in the front room of the house and be force fed the type of insipid, characterless and unadventurous music that television dictates. If the winter is a long and hard one, it might end up having a Government warning attached to it that simply states, “Staying in can seriously undermine your natural ability to check out exciting new music.” It might be the only Government warning worth worrying about.

Matthew McGurty, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(379 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Jimmy And The Revolvers, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Judging by the reaction of the assembled audience inside Studio 2 on Parr Street, Jimmy and The Revolvers had perhaps just given the performance of their lives.

Jimmy And The Revolvers, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

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

Lyra, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Kieron Smith of Lyra at Studio 2, Liverpool. n Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Kieron Smith of Lyra at Studio 2, Liverpool. n Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

You can tell that there is more than a spark of quality to a band when adversity, that age old Moriarty to the Sherlock creature that resides in youthful talent, just seems to be kicked into touch quicker than a footballer finding out there is a spread bet available on the time of the first throw-in.

Lyra, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(407 words, 1 image, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Bad Pollyanna, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Studio 2 has held many a night where the audience has been gripped by the performance; it has hosted Steve Macfarlane’s outstanding Sunday afternoon slots in which the occasion is always something to look forward to. It has seen the likes of Twisted Trees, the brilliant Little Sparrow, Matt Breen and Susie Jones perform on its stage and even had the legendary Brian Nash, John Gorman, Liverpool wordsmith Peter Grant and a whole host of poets and musicians give their all within the room. It even hosted the likes of Marillion and once upon a time as they recorded one of their many albums there and yet the ambient room has surely never hosted a band like Bad Pollyanna before.

Bad Pollyanna, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

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

Diamond Days, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Life is not quite a race against time, the hours will go past at their usual speed and the clock will recognise every hour with its usual exuberance and maddening, almost happy like sophistication. It is the time you cannot see, the tick between tock that you have to use wisely and gain the spirit and wherewithal to make a difference to life and to the quality of your performance.

Diamond Days, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

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

Black Diamond, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There can be nothing more that can make you suffer as if your ex-partner has run away with the one you left them for, or make you feel so elated in the same breath as if they had left behind their credit cards and a hastily scribbled note with their pin number on than feeling the dichotomy of watching a young band give such a performance and be so well appreciated that you cannot help but feel somehow you have wasted your life.

Black Diamond, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(536 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

They’re Coming To Get You Barbara, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A runaway train hurtling along the track, its metal shell gleaming in the radiant sunlight and with the band members from Metallica flying above in a stolen helicopter but somehow managing to play their greatest hits as in homage to the train’s pursuit has more chance of developing a sluggish demeanour than you could ever slow down They’re Coming To Get You Barbara once they have warmed up. Not that the band need much time but it gives the train a deluded self- confidence that nothing can match that type of speeding Metal.

They’re Coming To Get You Barbara, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)