Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
It is a wonder at times that the old streets of Liverpool’s famous heart aren’t to be seen physically bouncing, going up and down vigorously or even just vibrating slowly, swaying to the beat that comes out of the buildings, the energy of a thousand beaten drums and million guitars singing in unison as the parade of live music, its talent and its breathing cool dominate the city’s dynamic pulse.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
In the comfortable surroundings of one of the City’s less obvious gig venues, the clamour of evening tea and daily tasked conversation rising just as the summer moon makes it’s appearance in the Liverpool sky, the upstairs at Leaf, always the height of serenity and musical appreciation, became an oasis for memory, contemplation and praise, as Revolver, The Beatles 7th studio album was lauded and acclaimed by the packed out audience and as each song was performed by some of the very great talents in the Liverpool music community, there was undoubtedly, beautifully, magic in the Merseyside air.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Hype can be a tool in which certain yardsticks are set out to inevitably fail. Hype may gather interest, it may circulate a powerful emotion but the problem with hype is that it soon rusts; it fades into corporate fantasy and the sloth like figure of doomed expectancy. Hype is on the same level as hysteria, it rages and roars but then whimpers like a mouse caught choosing between three different slabs of meagre cheese.
Farm Feast – a fully-fledged festival of food and drink, music and farming fun which takes over Wirral’s Claremont Farm this May Bank Holiday (May 25th and 26th 2014) – launched at Liverpool’s Leaf venue on Thursday night with some great music provided by Acoustic Milkfloat.
Set in the idyllic rolling fields of Claremont Farm, Farm Feast boasts a wide range of family-friendly activities and events suitable for all ages, from mouth-watering demonstrations to live music from established and new local artists. Elements of the old festival that visitors know and love, such as the farmers’ market, a wide variety of stalls from the region’s top food and drink producers and exhibitors, and the ever popular ‘Sheep Show’ will also be making their way back to the site.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
History has a habit of colliding with the present day. Existence it seems is all about the small quirks of fate that lead a person from one place to the next and then an overlap, the brief spill into the past and an action from your childhood is bought back into plain site and a small forgotten memory lingers causing a reflection and possibly a smile.
Lizzie Nunnery, Leaf, Liverpool. 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Lizzie Nunnery commands respect. Four simple words that are as exact as day must surely follow night or as life will find a way, for anyone catching Lizzie Nunnery for the first time, the heavens may have aligned just at the right moment for them to see for themselves just exactly why Mellowtone rate her so highly and why Liverpool music goers absolutely insist that the woman breathes guitar chords, she plays with such analytical and pure mind that you cannot but be helped drawn into the notes and words.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There seem to be bands that somehow stay a secret far longer than they deserve to be. The clandestine way of the Universe just keeping them under the radar for just a little while longer before unveiling them with a flourish and watching the world go wow! Though by no means a cult band, The Mono L.Ps have been plugging away and getting huge attention, now is surely the time for the universe to say enough of the secrecy, this is the band, deal as you may find.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It was always going to take something magical, something just as interesting and musically terrific as the blindingly excellent Natalie McCool, to keep the evening at Leaf in the same rich vein of form that the audience had enjoyed all night. Sound City on its first day had lived up to its billing as being one of the best city festivals the U.K. and in the Leaf venue it had more that surpassed the high expectation thrust upon it. With Natalie McCool having departed the stage after her blistering and sensational set, perhaps it was only fitting that the cool Rachael Wright and The Good Sons took the challenge that lay before them.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
To start off Leaf’s involvement in this year’s Sound City with a band that isn’t that well known from across the Channel could be seen as a calculated risk, one that happily and wonderfully had those rare qualities of a surprise that was both exhilarating and fun to explore for the first time. The group, the very enjoyable Lolito, were not fazed by the looks on the faces of those attending the first band of the evening, the amazing bombshell that took people all of five minutes to get over and by the end of the first song, the smiles said it all.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
To watch Roddy Woomble on stage is to realise there are two different versions of the man who thrills so many people with his music. There is the one who is energetic and pumped full of adrenaline as part of the great Scottish band Idlewild, a man who throws himself into the action and who gives a charged performance that is exciting but also exhausting to watch. Then there is the man who gives off a relaxed air, a man in tune with his audience and the nature of his surroundings that he exudes class with air of solemnity. For the crowd at Leaf on Bold Street, on stage sat in a tranquil and cosy position was the latter and it was a gig that was just inspirational and powerfully uplifting.