Tag Archives: Liverpool. (2014)

Deacon Blue, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2014).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Deacon Blue performing at the Echo Arena, December 2014. Photograph courtesy of David Munn Photography.

From here on the days start to get longer, the country may just be staring into abyss that is the cold and potentially snow bound days of winter but at least there is light starting to creep back into the 24 hour clock as the balance of Time tips slowly back in favour of being able to be out of the house. However, the shortest day of the year affords the party to have a long hurrah, to slip comfortably into the clothes that make a person feel better and to enjoy one of the most popular acts that comes to Liverpool and its Echo Arena, the phenomenal Deacon Blue.

Deacon Blue, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2014). full post

(573 words, 2 images, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Pete Wylie, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Great songs are the only currency that counts. It really is that simple.

So, with a successful Pledge campaign in his back pocket and a brand new guitarist and consigliore standing stage left, Pete Wylie returned to The Zanzibar to wrap up his busiest year in a decade, before turning attention to the imminent recording of a new album.

Pete Wylie, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(376 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Brit Floyd, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2014).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is a problem that can flummox the most ardent or even the most casual of music lovers in Liverpool, that nowhere in the U.K., with perhaps the possible exception of London with its network of collected villages all rolled up into a Westminster empiric bag, can offer so much music in one night to its populace that audiences can be split through loyalty, nostalgia and shared love.

Brit Floyd, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2014). full post

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

The Human League, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2014)

The Human League, November 2014. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are not many bands around whose music manages to be impossibly and wonderfully timeless and yet still sound as if it is as fresh as a newly plucked rose being placed into the hands of a loved one, there aren’t many but then there are not that many bands like The Human League.

The Human League, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(621 words, 1 image, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Mind The Gap, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Rachel Worsley, Rik Grayson, Errol Smith, Harki Bhambra.

There is a tightening feel in the back of the throat. The stomach, once calm in the open air of the London streets has started to behave like a badly serviced washing machine and the dank, dirty, dusty air is causing the lungs and pores to feel as though scrubbing for a month will not get the skin clean as it clings and scrapes away at any vestige left of reason like an urban fox clawing at the remains of a deep fried chicken and chips strewn on the pavements after one last beer was had.

Mind The Gap, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. (2014) full post

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

Pavilions, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Even the most optimistic of music lovers are fully aware that to not see a band for around a year and expect them to play with the same consistency, the same richness that attracted you to them in the first place, could be seen as neglect, musical carelessness, a certain mistreatment. After all if human beings can change and grow then why not the artistic endeavours that we pursue. Those same artistic impressions can often lead to a downhill path, the choices made seemingly poor as band politics come into play and ego’s get bruised and battered.

Pavilions, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014) full post

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

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To sit infront of a young band who has come out fighting on all fronts since their inception and knowing that each time they appear before you, they just get more sleek, more smooth and unbelievably good is a feeling that warms the heart of even the most ungracious of hearts.

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Lennon, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: John Power, Tom Connor, Kirsten Foster, Ross Higginson, Adam Keast, Jonathan Markwood, Daniel McIntyre, Mark Newnham, Nicky Swift.

It is impossible to thank somebody across the ages, to shake their hand and say cheers for bringing a story to life, even when that person is still such a force in Liverpool’s artistic and cultural society, you cannot go back to a day over 30 years ago and tell them thank you for telling the dramatic life of one of the true heroes to have come from a city in which salutes its champions harder than anywhere else in the country. However if you should bump into Bob Eaton then try your absolute best to thank him for taking the chance on a production at the Everyman Theatre just a few short months after the passing of John Lennon.

Lennon, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(594 words, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Space, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Tommy Scott of Space at the 02 Academy, Liverpool. 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It had all been leading to this. The moment when the re-emergence of one of the great Liverpool bands kicked off touring again, being back in the studio for the first time in years, re-connecting with those that never wanted to say goodbye to them and the songs; the epic nature of tracks that more than ever had the ring of truth and perfection about them.

Space, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2014) full post

(614 words, 1 image, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Alexandra Jayne, Gig Review. The Brink, Liverpool. (2014).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is something of a delicious pleasure in seeing a young singer/songwriter on stage just a few weeks after you saw them for the first time and knowing deep down that what you saw on stage was only half the story.

Alexandra Jayne, Gig Review. The Brink, Liverpool. (2014). full post

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