Tag Archives: Philharmonic Hall

Elfin Bow, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Elfin Bow at the Philharmonic Hall’s Music Rooms. April 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

 

The Philharmonic Hall Music Room is a place where the song that lifts and lilts, that raises hope as well as the roof, is to be seen with a sense of honour and privilege, the dispensing of the day’s trials and injustice, the scream that builds up inside your mind, is let loose, carefully, gently, the kettle that could not stop whistling is reduced to silence and awe as musicians such as Elfin Bow take to the stage and perform their vigil to impart a subtle sense of well being and many a great song.

Elfin Bow, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(382 words, 1 image, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Kathryn Roberts And Sean Lakeman, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Tomorrow will follow today, to think otherwise is to take the only thing that matters in the world to many people from them, the belief of hope. Hope is the reason why so many of us get up in the morning, hope is the point of talking in vain to the nice girl who smiles, to listen to that song, to relish an evening out when everything about the modern world screams to stay inside; it is in hope that the live performance by an artist is one that will captivate you and keep you alive inside.

Kathryn Roberts And Sean Lakeman, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(449 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Thea Gilmore, Gig Review. The Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is always with a metaphorical warm embrace that audiences welcome back Thea Gilmore back into their live surroundings, regardless of whether it is with a full band or just on the stage with the talented Nigel Stonier, the welcome is positive and expectant, it is full of respect for the Oxfordshire raised musician and as the uncertainty of summer gives way to the chill of autumn, as the events unfold with dismay around the world, there is always the smile and the voice of a musically passionate woman to keep the home fires burning.

Thea Gilmore, Gig Review. The Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Roger McGough/ Royal Philharmonic 10/10 Ensemble. Summer With Monika. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Poetry and music give the same sense of hope and beauty to which arguably nothing else made by our own minds and creative souls, save an artist’s delicate touch or an actor’s soliloquy, can stand up to in comparison. Combine them, join them at the hip and something truly magical happens, it can feel like seeing the stars for the first time, watching a waterfall cascade over thousands of years of rocks and rubble which have been shaped by time and patience or even the wide eyed wonder of a child realise that the world is there to be explored. In nature the moment is forever, in the words of one of Britain’s finest poets of the last one hundred years, it is a spectacle that makes your heart glow.

Roger McGough/ Royal Philharmonic 10/10 Ensemble. Summer With Monika. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(414 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Fairport Convention, Gig Review. Music Room, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The bus rolls on, it does so because Time has need for the company it keeps and in such bands as Fairport Convention, Time understands that the message, the song, is far too important to not allow it to be heard or to be shared live. Music is not only exists to ease the suffering, to use in times of rememberance or to make those who seek to dominate society uncomfortable, it is there to be gathered around and used to make people smile, to make them enjoy life  and Time, whilst sometimes being a peculiar beast, revels in the joy that can be heard.

Fairport Convention, Gig Review. Music Room, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(500 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Seafoam Green, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

March always brings its own personal bluster and rage along with it, it is a month that dominates in many ways its environments and whilst January and February can be particularly cruel and deceitful, March verges on madness, on a tight spring, a vicious beast coiled up ready to pounce and knock you over with unexpected results. To combat the madness thrown up by a month which doesn’t believe in just standing still, in which rain and shine are intermingled like a bad marriage, some restoration of beauty and calm are needed.

Seafoam Green, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(428 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

The Human League, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2016).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

You only have to go by the sound of the crowd to understand what music means to the people. In the end it is not about mass popularity, the endless soul destroying fight with fame and supposed fortune, it is how your art makes others feel deep in their souls and if you can have a sold out Philharmonic Hall audience singing their hearts out, making the foundations and the walls shake slightly in anticipation and the low moan of pleasure in the ears as hearts spill open over 35 years worth of love and affection for arguably one of the architects of British Synth Pop, The Human League, then the crowd cannot be wrong.

The Human League, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2016). full post

(474 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

David Essex, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Some people should know better, the rush of excitement though becomes too much and whilst not done in malice, it could see such moments of venues tolerating the rush to the front to see the sex symbols, the musical icons and the true stars of longevity, disappear into the night quicker than a reality television star’s career. No harm done of course as the interloper to David Essex’s stage was dealt with in the same off hand manner that accompanied the likes of Rugby pitch invader Erica Rowe, but it did for a moment detract from what was the power of a man to whom there never has been any doubt, his place in the annals of British music.

David Essex, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Ian Prowse, Gig Review. The Music Room, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Summer, in all its British damp and rain soaked glory, in all its burning one day haze, which with nostalgia over time becomes as sweat driven and lethargic as the one that hit the nation in ’76, long, luxurious and never ending, summer is only possible to dream about because festivals give the music lover hope and certain musicians always make sure they play in the same place each year, around the same time, to give thanks to their fans, the ritual is one of cool dynamic, of mutual thanks.

Ian Prowse, Gig Review. The Music Room, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Shine, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

All that was missing as the purity of Scottish voice and the sense of purpose that only two harps and a glockenspiel can bring to the abundant, almost feast like musical table, was the feeling of the Music Room at the Philharmonic Hall being transposed to the Scottish Highlands. It gives the feeling of a cold storm of rampant snow being trampled underfoot by majestic reindeer hoof and well stitched made shoe leather and shiny boot and the slight taste of acridity from the log fire burning within a castle wall with the same swell of passion as the three women who make up the fantastic band Shine.

Shine, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(415 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)