If New York is the city that never sleeps then Liverpool is the city that never stops singing. To anyone who makes their way to any of the sheer multitude of venues, be it the dominant on the skyline such as the Echo Arena and first opened in full to the public and many a big band and big noise experience in the year that Liverpool was rightly emblazoned with the moniker of Capital of Culture throughout every event, to the small but significant and certainly homely such as Studio 2, Zanzibar and Leaf, to anyone making their way to Liverpool, not only is there a great set of venues to choose from but the music, home grown and much admired, steeped in history and more arguably more satisfying than anywhere in such close concentration in the country, is to be admired.
Tag Archives: Zanzibar
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Karmamoi’s Joline Forshaw.
Joline Forshaw with Daniele Giovannoni of Karmamoi. Photograph reproduced with kind permisssion by Lunatic Eye and Karmamoi.
Arguably the centre of the Universe has to pass through Liverpool at some juncture; nothing else really can ever explain the abundance of musical talent that comes out of the city. Even those that have to live away from their beloved home still find that the passion for bringing new music into the world an overriding and natural part of the laws of attraction. Even for those based outside the sphere of arts in their daily life seek solace in it and for Karmamoi’s Joline Forshaw this is especially true.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Arkham Karvers, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
As the temperature rises in Liverpool and fully announces that Britain is going to at least have some sort of summer in 2013 and the heat increases at Wimbledon to fever pitch levels, those two elements feel like a cold winters day compared to the music that has been generated by the bands in Zanzibar which has been slowly going off the scale.
Chief amongst these was Arkham Karvers whose polished and wild set was not only a joy to take in but as they hit the ground running with the blistering opener Heisenberg, the stage was set for a new set of hero’s to burn themselves into the hearts of those attending the evening’s Hunger Games session at Zanzibar.
Path Unknown, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The name of the band may be Path Unknown but since their debut gig at the O2 Academy in January of this year, the course they have been on, the direction they are treading has been ever upwards and quite rightly so. This is no way an unknown path, this is one that is very well thought out and performed so well that in seven short months the band has already made several inspired moves sound wise. From being good and ones to watch at The Academy, to slap me sideways with a cold halibut excellent takes quality, hubris and a dedication in achieving the best, all this has been realised.