Tag Archives: Gig Review

John R. Chatterton, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

John R. Chatterton has the unnerving ability to make songs that you have listened to perhaps a million times before sound somehow fresh and new. Tracks, that despite having been on the end of radio play and being sat in people’s records collections gathering dust, mean a great deal to people but have become stale and repetitive. In the hands of this superb musician, the music, his own compositions and those he covered were played with aplomb, a defining skill and instrumental ability that is hard to imagine anybody else being able to do.

John R. Chatterton, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival. full post

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

Simon Cousins, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Some musicians just radiate warmth and a sort of musical love as soon as they step on a stage. Without even playing a note on a guitar, just by the simple motion of saying hello to a collected crowd, the affection is felt around you. Whoever has come to take in the musician’s work, be it friends, fans or the surprised newcomer, what comes palpably across is the thought that everybody who is watching just wants the musician to succeed. In that respect the warmth felt for Simon Cousins could keep a large town’s heating suppliers out of business for a long while.

Simon Cousins, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Caves, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To a generation born in the 1970s or before, Sunday afternoons were always consigned to the part of the week labelled most dull, it was the time of the week that came after the fun and revelry of a Saturday night and the near horror of an ever encroaching Monday. It was time for a walk to somewhere there was never open, for people to have a Sunday nap after dinner with the family or if they were really fortunate, being asked to do something in the garden or even painting the window frames.

Caves, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Steve Thompson And The Incidents. Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Like many things in the world, music is an art form best enjoyed live and in the raw, not force fed down a multiplex of wires and accessible via a flick of a switch and shown on a screen with directors teasing you into believing that what you are seeing is real. Catching a band live allows a sense of belonging to something a little more than yourself and in Steve Thompson and The Incidents, alongside the millions of other bands plying their trade with a smile and a song that belief is more than real, it is realisation that art in the raw is as good as it gets.

Steve Thompson And The Incidents. Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool full post

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

The Mavericks, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The one thing other than death and taxes which is assured in life is that when The Mavericks, the Americana country band with a smile and the ability to make anyone’s foot tap along with their infectious beat come to town, there is a party atmosphere both in the audience and on stage.

Promoting their new album, In Time, and making sure that the huge crowd inside the Philharmonic Hall got their money’s worth with a set that was overwhelming and jam-packed to the brim, The Mavericks, led by the indefatigable and unflagging Raul Malo took the audience on a trip to the days when their music was played almost non-stop on the radio and music television; both in Europe and in their home land.

The Mavericks, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. full post

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

Jimmy And The Revolvers, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

With a flash of a smile, the humbling grumble of a guitar ready to be taken on a journey that reminds the music goers inside Zanzibar of days gone by when music was played for the thrill of performing and not just because the band saw images of hopeful contracts being thrust in their direction, Jimmy and The Revolvers gave a sterling performance with songs that were eminently enjoyable.

Jimmy And The Revolvers, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(323 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Paul Straws, Gig Review. Camp And Furnace, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Baltic Triangle’s Camp and Furnace and live music are a match made in, if not Heaven, then certainly in a hotel in a short walkable distance and with a cold welcome drink provided and poured by St. Peter when you get there. Every weekend there is music to be had in the city but one of the venues that has become a vital part of the music community has that great feel of the outdoors about it and as Paul Straws’ beautiful hauntingly calm music flows throughout the building, even a wedding party guest or two from the other side of Camp and Furnace’s building could be seen enjoying the music.

Paul Straws, Gig Review. Camp And Furnace, Liverpool. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Rachael Wright, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

If ever they find out what the result is when you combine elegance, sophistication, touchingly beautiful lyric writing with more than a hint of sensuality and the double edge of barbarism that can be so sadly missing from some female performers, the clever money will be betting that somewhere along the line the name Rachael Wright will be plastered throughout its D.N.A.

Rachael Wright, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

The Vinos, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

As the music died down from what was in effect an outstanding, beautiful and admittedly cool set given The Vinos, somewhere in the back of the minds of those who attended Zanzibar on a day where the temperature seemed most oppressive and the sweat running off every citizen in the city collectively could have matched, if not bettered, the volume of the River Mersey at its highest tide, that this band, which has been together for less than a year, already needs to be thinking of performing in a venue that can really see them kick off and become the stars that their music more than suggests they can be.

The Vinos, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(499 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Sirens, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Liverpool is not known for its love of the heavier side of rock, the small dalliance that could be erring on the side of metal is something that local band Buckle Tongue has got round by performing with intelligence and guile whilst remaining true to their core belief, because of one band leading the way, Sirens can now tread in more harsher boots and start to crush their own path in the area.

Sirens, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)