Jessicas Ghost, Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
No matter how hard you try, you cannot achieve the goal of seeing all the great bands to come your way in your life time. To try would perhaps be folly, the madness of a person bereft of the need to do anything else and who finds sleep just an irrational pastime.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 71/2/10
For many, St. Patricks Day, usually with the celebrations spread over a long weekend, is the chance to party for the first time in the year. Nobody would blame a single person for wanting to get rid of the worst winter blues and weather hangover for perhaps decades by going out on the town and taking in the Saturday night shindigs and social gatherings.
In the Zanzibar Club, something was unfolding as James Michael, a previous X-Factor contestant, made his way to the stage and gave a great account of himself with some well written tunes and some inspired lyrics.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Just knowing that somewhere in the darkened hall of Zanzibar, the two women who make up the superb ME and Deboe, Mercy Elise and Sarah Deboe, are mentally going through the notes of the songs that are going to perform is enough to send the shiver of musical anticipation rushing through the veins and capillaries, the sense of the thrill to come running up and down your spine and the sliver of expectation to go into meltdown.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
In a night of music that the was refreshingly made up of a majority of female artists, the early part of the evening at Zanzibar did have one male act that was able by sheer force of will and overflowing talent stand at least on a level par with the acts that bookended them. With the likes of ME and Deboe performing in the venue, the very cool Arms and Hearts couldn’t have had a tougher competition if the superb Norwegian contingent of female artists that have made Liverpool their home had also got up onstage and blended their Nordic magic in a tribute to all things Northern Europe.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Shannen Bamford’s E.P., Paper Planes, was one of the surprise wonders of 2013. The intensity in which she put together a cracking set of songs was gently effective and musically comfortable, a real find.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is nothing better than a good first impression, especially live as opposed to the world of recorded music. Studio time, whilst being very precious and expensive also affords the slight luxury of being able to go over a slight mistake, a small error in delivery, the pause where there shouldn’t be any and to make sure that the next take is vastly superior. Live and in the raw, the full glare of house lights piercing through otherwise darkness and fixated upon the artist is enough to give anyone the wobbles, however there are no second chances upon the stage. For Kate Hazeldine, the only reason why second chances don’t exist in that environment is because she doesn’t need them.
On Friday 17th January, the Zanzibar Club will be playing host to some great young talent within its walls as bands such as Electric Lips, The Inkhearts will be joining the cracking Kalandra.
Fronted by Katrine Ødegård Stenbekk, Kalandra are a six-piece folk rock band that have made Liverpool their home and contains musicians from England, The Isle of Man and Norway. It is this Norwegian influence, carrying on a wonderful tradition of musicians such as Kaya Herstad Carney, Grethe Borsum and Ragz Nordset from that proud country that have made the city even more exotic and fable like than ever before.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are many hundreds of reasons for the unshakeable belief that Liverpool’s music in the early part of the 21st Century is something to savour, to relish and enjoy, not to keep closeted away in some dusty attic room and for only a handful of people to nod sagely at but always going back to the moment that music in the U.K. really started.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Staying in is sometimes too tempting an offer. The chance to baton down the hatches, especially in what could be a cruel winter, is not just tempting, it can be so enticing and you would only be human to succumb. However in an area that really makes other places, towns and large urban societies look upon it with envious eyes when it comes to its abundance and well attended music venues, that temptation must be fought and beaten, especially when you come across a support act for a major star that just gets every musical juice flowing and the blood pumping round a body that is desperate to be assured that it’s alive.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
As with anything in life there are slow burners and there are instant attention grabbers. The slow burners sparks, splutters and struggles against the prevailing wind but ultimately wins through and burns very bright. Then there are the attention grabbers, the ones that clutches at the heels of the interested viewer, listener, interloper and effects how they look at everything, both are valid and both, if nurtured, will stay long in thoughts of those moved in the musical sensually.