September comes around so fast, the first squeals of the autumn deluge, the days in which humanity’s first natural thoughts are to the dark days of winter that are just over the horizon. It is the autumn that perhaps reflects the mood of aging better than any other season, life in a three month cycle summed up against the flower of youth, the heady days of summer which whispers of all the potential experiences that can be had and the quiet of old age winter, autumn in life is the best we might be able to attain, the final flourish in a life well lived.
Category Archives: Interviews
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With The Shires.
The mould has been broken, the dominant aspect of Country music in its own backyard taken apart, its historical birthplace, has been, if not smashed, then certainly demolished brick by brick, blade of grass by white picket fence and tales of the homely and beautiful swept aside. It is the mould set out by the American Country genre to which The Shires, Chrissie Rhodes and Ben Earle, have become quite rightly known as the band in which sit up, take notice of and toast as the modern day British saviours of a genre that was wobbling under its own weight across the pond.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Tayo Aluko.
One of the honours of packing up your bags for a while, forgetting the steamy hot sweat of the city where no one has anything on their mind with perhaps the exception of the oncoming football season or the complexities of the latest England cricket score, is arguably heading off to the other capital of culture in the U.K. and immersing yourself completely in the Edinburgh Fringe. It is at the Fringe where some of Liverpool’s much loved actors and performers find themselves and test out new material for the first time, where they experience every crush, every agonising line of perplexed worry on the face of the audience and the thrill of delight that sits in the deepest heart when the play, the song or the joke is appreciated fully and with respect.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Maddie Stenberg.
The concourse at Lime Street Station on a Friday afternoon always seems to be incredibly congested, the heaving sense of humanity on the move as they find their way to different pastures for the weekend in search of fun or the locked doors of their own palaces and castles, is at times a wonder to behold. Ant like but striding with purpose, the evening concert in the city bringing people in, the thought of a late summer’s drink at the local spurring them on to catch the stopper between Liverpool and that other bended finger of North West music appreciation, you cannot help but be entranced by this weekly dance.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: An Interview With The B-Leaguers.
One of the great albums of 2016 so far has come from the Lincolnshire based band The B-Leaguers. The ear-catching and phenomenal Death Of A Western Heart is not only a truly fine and well produced album but it reminds people that music is not just confined to the hearts of places such as Liverpool, Birmingham and London but is actually something so intrinsic to society that it is to be celebrated anywhere and at any time.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: An Interview With Alison Green. (2016).
Spending time with a musician is almost like spending time with a favourite member of your family, when the time comes that they have to leave, it can be a wrench to the soul; especially if they are one that captivates with such distinction on stage, if they have a persona that just radiates cool.
Canterbury’s Alison Green, or her musical alter ego Whisky Ginger Johnson, is one such musician. Firmly entrenched in the idea of the Progressive, even if she doesn’t quite realise it, Alison Green is a firm favourite of the I.P.O. A woman whose music straddles the Canterbury set with ease and to whom as soon as you listen to the stories that hide, camouflage themselves, only to appear as chronicles of a life so well lived, so endearing, that you cannot help but fall in love with them.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Supplement. An Interview With Mark And Helen Luker (Fun Of The Pier).
The International Pop Overthrow is one event that shouldn’t be missed, regardless of where in the world founder and organiser David Bash takes it, it is a chance to come across the unexpected, the divine and the surprisingly brilliant.
The Cavern and the Cavern Pub have long had the honour of hosting Liverpool’s week of crowning new idols and loved musicians, of making new bands to admire and urge on. Amongst them is the fascinating duo of Helen of Mark Luker, or as they are better known as Fun of the Pier. It is a duo that gives an awful lot of pleasure on stage and one that really should have a bigger following.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript. An Interview With Geoff Downes Of Yes.
The sound of a legend talking down the phone might be enough to send the brain cells scurrying into submission, to wave the white flag of surrender and allow the moment to get out of hand but in Geoff Downes’ case it is a moment in which serenity and spirit is authorised to be conscious of just how important groups such as Progressive Rock Kings Yes are to the fabric of Britain and that each member of that group has played their part with enormous pride.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Cathy Roberts.
An idea will come sometimes out of nothing, the spark of imagination somehow bursting into life with the will of a star experiencing the desire to go supernova; it only takes the right spark to set in motion a chain of events that eventually and gloriously end up from page to stage with wondrous inevitability.
Moggies The Musical is the rightful next stage in the life of the Mersey Moggies, the brain child of Cathy Roberts, storyteller, book lover, a beating heart within the Liverpool arts scene and above all someone who truly understands compassion, it is the searing quality that makes her creation of the Mersey Moggies so entrancing and a gentle reminder of what it means to be human; to care for something other than one’s self, and in Moggies The Musical there truly is so much to care about.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript. An Interview With Lewis Pryor.
The artistic youth of Liverpool have huge boots to fill, that much has been true since it Brian Epstein realised just how important the four young lads occupying the Cavern stage one weekday dinner time were to defining the city and an era. Not only in music to which many great bands and musicians have made several generations happy as they while away in contentment to the sound of the day but also in the world of acting; the world of theatre and film is awash with the familiar faces of many famous Liverpool actors; following in the footsteps as large as David Morrissey, Kim Cattrall, Drew Schofield and Jennifer Ellison is hard work but for Lewis Pryor that calling is loud and clear and he appears to be enjoying the cause to which he and many of generation are heeding the call.