photograph by edinburghfestival.list.co.uk
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 12th 2011.
Cast: Britt Jurgensen, Ben Philips, Mary Pearson.
One of the fascinating and tremendous things about spending the night in the theatre is that occasionally you get challenged to think outside of the metaphorical box and tackle something that will really get the imagination going and the fingers poised over the top of your head ready to scratch just in case you might not realise what’s going on.
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 12th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating ****
One of the new big two of Progressive Rock, Touchstone, makes a superb comeback with the stunning new album The City Sleeps. With the last album Live in the U.S.A. still very much in the minds of the band, this new offering carries on the outstanding work that the group have created and have been admired for by their peers and fans alike.
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 16th 2011.
L.S.Media Rating: ***
There was only one way that Amy Lee could go after 2008’s The Open Door and that was to gather herself together, forget the past and strive to regain the delight in performing and making records that would match the ideal and superb debut album her band Evanescence achieved in what seems alife time ago.
photograph by Ian D. Hall
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 16th 2011.
L.S. Media Rating *****
Two acts with the same intensity, drive and showmanship sharing the night as a double header is rare but with Damien Dempsey kicking off the Liverpool Irish Music Festival in fine form, there was only one way Amsterdam could go in a very atmospheric o2 Academy and that was to match the whirlwind that is the popular Irishman and give the local and travelling fans a night to really let go and be proud of.
Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 17th 2011.
L.S. Media Rating *****
There is no two ways about it; a Damien Dempsey show is always going to be special, when it’s part of a double header involving Liverpool’s own Amsterdam then it’s going to considered the type of brilliant evening that anything else going on in Liverpool that night may as well resign itself to being relegated to small talk the following morning.
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 19th 2011.
L.S. Media Rating ****
In the 80’s Dire Straits were by far one of the biggest bands on the planet. They were loved by people who just bought one album, adored by millions who had followed the band’s career and adulated and remembered for one particular song that had a cutting edge video, insanely brilliant riff attached to it and lyrics that resonated with an audience ready to throw off the shackles of the 1970’s.
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 23rd 2011. 
Direction: Noreen Kershaw.
Cast: Sue Ryding, Maggie Fox.
LSMedia Rating: ****
The company’s name may be Lip Service but the two actors who make up this wonderful duo do more than pay the barest glimpse into the lives of two of the leading literary lights of the 19th Century, they bring Charlotte and Emily Bronte to life in a way not thought of but in a style that was highly original and warmly greeted by all those in attendance.
L.S Media Rating **** Stars
Thomas Dolby has never really been a man who let convention get in the way of anything he wanted to achieve or put out for his fans to take part in. From the start of the new wave of keyboard and synthesised music explosion Thomas Dolby was there messing around with the rules and defying expectation with ground breaking music such as She Blinded Me With Science and the 1984 hit Hyperactive, both these songs still sounding deliciously odd but with a certain wonderment to them.
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 25th 2011.
L.S. Media rating *****
If you are going to have the tag “Super group” hanging round your neck for all too see then its best to live up to the hype, the moniker and the musical ideal by delivering music that’s accessible and above reproach from critics and fans. Black Country Communion have done just that in the last couple of years, and now Chickenfoot follow superbly in that fashion and have delivered another impressive album that holds dear to the ideals of excellent riffs and well placed lyrics.
picture from Big Finish.com
Originally published by L.S. Media. October 26th 2011.
Cast: Paul McGann, Julie Cox, Gareth Armstrong, Christian Brassington, David Schneider, Gwilym Lee, Claire Wyatt, Nicholas Briggs.
L.S. Media rating **** Stars
From the opening moments of The Silver Turk, Big Finish’s October release of Doctor Who audio plays, you can’t help but notice the changes. For a start the music, though obviously the Doctors unmistakable theme, is different from anything that has accompanied Paul McGann’s incarnation of the time travelling detective. It has a more sinister feel to it and fits in well with the premise of the story arc and where listeners of Big Finish left the Doctor at the end of Paul McGann’s stand-alone series four, the ominous and brooding To the Death.