Monthly Archives: July 2014

Betty Blue Eyes, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Laura Baldwin, Tobias Beer, Kit Benjamin, Adam C. Booth, Amy Booth-Steel, Jeni Bowden, Ricky Butt, Matt Harrop, Oliver Izod, Rachel Knowles, Lauren Logan, Rebecca Louis, Sally Mates, Joe Maxwell, Hayden Oakley, Anthony Ray, Kate Robson-Stuart.

Winston Churchill, the war-time leader of Great Britain, once exclaimed that to look a dog in the eyes was to see it acknowledge it saw its master, a cat would see its slave but to look a pig in the eyes, well the pig sees its equal…for Betty Blue Eyes, it’s doubtful you will ever see anything to equal this well written and superbly performed play again.

Betty Blue Eyes, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Shane Beales, Time. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Time is perhaps the greatest commodity that Humanity possesses; no other creature on the Earth feels its passing in the same way, by the ticking of the arbitrary clock, the machine that allots how you live between the tick and the tock and how you use up your designated heartbeats. Every other creature goes by nature, Humanity goes by the well-oiled spring and the belief that Time is to be conquered, you either use it productively or find that at some point life has gotten so far away from you that it has swallowed whole by the numbers imprinted on the clock.

Shane Beales, Time. E.P. Review. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Young Actors Take Over Abandoned Building in Ellesmere Port.

In times of conflict we often think of the people involved and effected, but have you ever stopped to think about what happens to the animals in war-torn countries?

This August, to mark the centenary of the First World War, local theatre company Action Transport Theatre and their Young Actors Company will explore exactly that in new show, The Zoo which will take place around the Overpool Road on August 2nd and August 3rd at 2pm and 7pm.

Set in an abandoned zoo in a war-zone city, the play follows five children as they attempt to keep themselves, and the starving zoo animals alive.

Young Actors Take Over Abandoned Building in Ellesmere Port. full post

(374 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

British Progressive Rock Sensations Touchstone To Release Offical Live DVD.

Further to the release of their fourth studio album, Oceans Of Time which entered the official U.K. Rock chart at No.24 in autumn 2013, British progressive rock quintet Touchstone are proud to announce the release of their first official live DVD: Touchstone – Live Inside Outside (3 Disc DVD/CD Edition)

The DVD features previously unreleased footage of Touchstone’s full set from 2010’s High Voltage Festival in London’s Victoria Park, as well as the entire set from the last date of the Ocean’s Of Time 2013 launch tour at Bilston’s Robin 2 venue. Filmed, directed, edited and mixed by Magenta’s Rob Reed, this set features tracks from Oceans Of Time including Contact and Fragments, as well as older classics and crowd favourites such as Corridors and Strange Days.

British Progressive Rock Sensations Touchstone To Release Offical Live DVD. full post

(252 words, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)

Shiny New Festival Returns To Lantern Theatre For Third Year Of Great Performances.

Shiny New Festival returns to Lantern Theatre Liverpool from the 14th – 20th July 2014 for its third consecutive year!  Offering up three performances each night from the Northwest’s finest new writers and comedians, Shiny New Festival brings local artists a much-needed platform to showcase their homegrown work to fresh audiences.

Shiny New Festival Returns To Lantern Theatre For Third Year Of Great Performances. full post

(1436 words, estimated 5:45 mins reading time)

Tony Award Nominated Play, Stones In His Pockets, Comes To The Liverpool Empire Theatre This November.

Following its Tony Award nominated run on Broadway, four and a half years in the West End and on tour, the worldwide success STONES IN HIS POCKETS is back on the road once again playing over 60 dates across the U.K. including a one night stand on Monday 10th November at the Liverpool Empire Theatre.

Seen by more than 2 million people, STONES IN HIS POCKETS tells a hilarious and moving tale of a quiet Irish community, turned upside down by the arrival of a massive Hollywood movie shoot. Universally loved by all who see it, STONES IN HIS POCKETS is brought to life by two talented actors Conor Delaney (Game of Thrones, Jack Taylor, The Tudors) and Stephen Jones (Ripper Street) who play 15 characters between them – from the cheeky lads intent on stardom to a Hollywood Goddess!

Tony Award Nominated Play, Stones In His Pockets, Comes To The Liverpool Empire Theatre This November. full post

(284 words, estimated 1:08 mins reading time)

Candleford, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Kim Veldman, Lisa Hitchins, Albert Hastings, Stacey Liddell, Carla Cookylnn, Rachel McKeown, Charlotte Holguin, Gillian Lewis, Gemma Doyle, Peter Higham, Sheddie Broddie, John Goodwin, Bertie Jones, Agustin Arraez, Lisa Symonds, Keri Seymour, Amy Stout, Michael Treanor, Ady Potter, Katie Thomas, Janet Fennell, Derek Weigh.

To perform a theatre production based on a hit television programme, a period piece in which the attention to detail of the age is usually the first thing that subconsciously many people sitting down to watch will question, is a brave choice. For a company that is made up of those who love acting for its ventured expression, for the satisfaction of being on stage and becoming someone else it is courage befitting the bold and the fearless.

Candleford, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(585 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

Footnote…

Tears were never wasted on you but the anger

diminished as it should when somebody dies in your mind.

I see the face in other books and feel the sick-

ness return at the thought of you.

 

A Sonnet for the love of you, the memory of the cult

captured and freed with remorse, the handshake

unfulfilled and unanswered, my fault.

It matters not as I still care and hope that you are happy now with nothing at stake.

 

On your own request you relegated yourself from a paragraph to a sentence,

Footnote… full post

(141 words, estimated 34 secs reading time)

The Most, The Vinyl E.P. Collections. E.P. Reviews.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There was a time when the lands that encompass the Nordic sphere of influence weren’t, with one notable exception, particularly noted for their music output or inspiration on the twin cultures of America and the U.K. Every genre was met with the kind of derision that you expect from arguably self-centred dominant crop of major artists.  Times change, spheres of influence move on, what was considered unattractive or just plain wrong can become the stuff of legends and as with Iceland, Norway, The Faroe Islands, Finland and Denmark, Sweden’s music has become something to savour, like the stunning landscapes that dwarf the fields, the lakes that capture the imagination, The Most are something to admire from a country that holds such things in the palm of its hands and nourishes them in a way that the U.K. at times seems to have forgotten.

The Most, The Vinyl E.P. Collections. E.P. Reviews. full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Gramercy Arms, The Seasons Of Love. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If you wanted happening, creative, inventive and artistic way of life in America during the late 70s through to around 1993, then like the period before the Second World War and the smell of Jazz oozing out of the bars on 77th Street like a victory parade caught in the heat of noon day sun, the best place to go was New York City.

Gramercy Arms, The Seasons Of Love. Album Review. full post

(521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)