Alan Hewitt leans back on the chair in FACT and smiles, a man wistful with memories of gigs and stories which culminated in his book on Steve Hackett, the Genesis guitarist who has carved out perhaps the most productive solo career of all those that made Genesis one of the finest Progressive Rock bands to hail from the U.K. being enjoyed rightly by the multitude. Sketches of Hackett is a book of immense value and warmth and just chatting to him, time seems to lose its meaning as the 20 minute time limit we set ourselves becomes muddled and extended until we have broached the subject of almost every Steve Hackett solo album and his contribution to the richness of the second and third period of the Genesis era.
Tag Archives: Liverpool Sound And Vision
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Patrick Maguire And Alan Anderson.
Patrick Maguire and Alan Anderson are part of the city’s thriving Liverpool Playwright community, a community that has had the illustrious likes of Fred Lawless (Nightmare On Lime Street, Little Scouse on the Prairie, Scouse Pacific, Hitchhikers Guide To Fazakerley), Karen Brown, Richie Grice, Donna Lesley Price, Helen Kerr (Grin Theatre) and Mike Neary pass through its doors at one time or another.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Paul Dunbar Of The Midnight Ramble.
Paul Dunbar greets me with a friendly smile and an outstretched hand as he comes from out of one of the many doors that are part of the rabbit warren of the iconic Unity Theatre. Every band and musician I have come across in Liverpool has something special about them, from Buckle Tongue to Ian McNabb, from Jo Bywater to Stealing Sheep, Paul Dunbar and his band have something about them that makes you want to smile which fits in with the current and lasting view that the city of Liverpool is perhaps arguably the best city in terms of creativity within music to call home.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Lynn Francis.
This month sees The Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool host Amanda Whittington’s play Ladies Day. First produced and staged by Hull Truck Theatre in 2005, the play stars three of Liverpool’s impressive and likeable female actors in Eithne Browne, Lynn Francis, Angela Simms and the trio are joined by Emmerdale’s Roxanne Pallet as a group of factory workers who all want different things out of life and decide to visit the world famous Aintree Racecourse. They are joined by the only male in the show Jack Lord who is sure to get the run around from this foursome of impressive women.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Rio Matchett.
Rio Matchett for the last year has juggled the pressure of a second year of studying for her degree at the University of Liverpool and being President of a very successful Liverpool University Drama Society (L.U.D.S.). On the back of some incredible work by her, the amazing team she has had at her disposal, actors and back stage, L.U.D.S. has enjoyed great acclaim with the plays that have been produced which have included Jack Thorne’s Fanny and Faggot, Noel Coward’s Still Life and the tour de force that was Alan Bennett’s The History Boys.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Ed Harcourt.
Originally published by www.liverpool-live.co.uk on May 16th 2013.
Songsmith Ed Harcourt released his latest album Back Into The Woods earlier this year. Recorded in just 6 hours at Abbey Road Studios, the critically acclaimed work features a collection of beautifully stripped down tracks. In keeping with the romance and warmth of the album, he heads out on a tour of intimate churches and concert halls this summer and plays Liverpool’s Scandinavian Church on 7th June.
The venues on the new tour are quite distinctive and they seem to lend themselves to your music, for instance, Trinity Church in Leeds and the Scandinavian Church in Liverpool; was this a conscious decision to do play such places?
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Sally Fildes-Moss And Paula Stewart.
The Crucible is arguably one of the crowning glories of 20th Century theatre, a play so powerful that the parallels it drew on one of the sickening acts in American history, the show trials conducted by Senator McCarthy in an attempt to goad the decent people of the country in to believing that everyone, neighbour, friend, lover was part of a Communist conspiracy, was too big to ignore. Bringing together the fear and jealousy of one era, a harsh time dominated by religion and comparing the post Second World War American dogma was a piece of genius that only Arthur Miller could have done and written so incredibly well.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Brian McCann.
Birkenhead playwright Brian McCann is a busy man. So busy in fact that I appreciate that I am fortunate to have time with him at the Leaf tea shop on Bold Street in which to chat to him about his play, Down Our Street, which is coming to the Royal Court Theatre in April. The story of Birkenhead and the Cammell Laird ship building company is intertwined with each other, with many generations of families being employed by the firm.
The play was well received when performed at the Unity Theatre and was one of the delights of the season when performed.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Big Wow!
One of the huge delights of the Liverpool theatre calendar is the appearance of the Big Wow team at the Unity Theatre. Their physical comedy performances delight and astound audiences no matter what show they have put on and are firm favourites in Liverpool.
Big Wow consist of three incredible talents that are made up of performers Tim Lynskey and Matt Rutter and the writer Robert Farquhar. Sitting in the Unity theatre before one of their shows and talking to a team that not only thrill audiences but can make them question the world through the use of physical comedy is slightly nerve racking and completely inspiring.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Mark Smith.
In 1993, theatre-maker Mark Smith came to Liverpool to study Drama at John Moores University. A native of the Bedfordshire town of Luton; notably famous for its hats, Eric Morecambe’s football team Luton Town, of which Mark fondly talks about his trip to Wembley as a ball boy when they won the League Cup in the 1988 and two of the members of Jethro Tull, it seems that Mark was destined to stand out from the crowd.