Yearly Archives: 2014

The Fall, Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Gillian Anderson, Jamie Dornan, John Lynch, Bronagh Waugh, Niamh McGrady, Sarah Beattie, Aisling Franciosi, Emmett J Scanlan, Archie Panjabi, Stuart Graham, Gerard Jordan, Bronagh Taggart, Valene Kane, Richard Clements, Jonjo O’Neill, Kelly Gough, Orla Mullan, Colin Morgan, Ruairí Tohill.

The Fall of humanity is a precarious downward path and it can start with a single dominant voice whispering in the dark, it soft murmuring causing a fuse to blow somewhere and in which starts the domino like destruction wrought on society is one that should be investigated more and evidence found in which to support the afflicted in the future. What happens before then though can be seen a terrorizing game between two people and in The Fall that game is played out with the severest of consequences.

The Fall, Series Two. Television Review. full post

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

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. The Auditorium, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Andrew Schofield, Alan Stocks, Paul Duckworth, Keddy Sutton, Gillian Hardie, Lenny Wood.

A different setting, a changed venue, can make all the difference between wildly incredible and drop dead tremendous.

For the second year running the area around the Echo Arena played host to Dave Kirby’s sensational and uproarious Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas and yet just to take it out of the main arena in which the echo of Christmas Day’s Past Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and Peter Gabriel songs were still bouncing off the walls and in which Deacon Blue’s soulful pop was still to grace, the Auditorium became a more natural staging in which to completely immerse one’s self into the world of Thomas Minge and his collection of oddities and workers with the most wonderful but very peculiar habits.

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. The Auditorium, Liverpool. full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

The Wonder Stuff (Acoustic), Gig Review. 02 Academy, Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time is a tremendous healer; it can also be a jailer. It can tie you down and deliver a quick, unexpected slap and shock the system to the point where unless you are willing to change the way you present yourself every now and then, or at least the fundamental part that everyone sees on a daily basis, then Time is quick to stagnate and be repulsed.

The Wonder Stuff (Acoustic), Gig Review. 02 Academy, Birmingham. full post

(588 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Mark Morriss, Gig Review. 02 Academy Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is the absurdity and cruelty of modern life that with even the best intentions you can miss a great artist’s work and not hear about it till months after the event. It somehow underlines the age, places a big huge marker against the 21st Century when looking back at the annals of history that a talented musician can go vastly unnoticed and yet somehow, somewhere someone is laughing with a maniacal grin and wringing their hands as if having purchased a tonne of glee and were now beaming at the thought that television had finally killed the true artist.

Mark Morriss, Gig Review. 02 Academy Birmingham. full post

(500 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

Skillet, Vital Signs. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Just when the outlook may appear to be festering, perhaps wallowing in some self imposed drudgery, along comes a group capable of shaking the apathy and laziness that had crept into all corners of an American once legendary genre, out and delivering a sermon on the Rock mount decrying the dangers of letting it be lost to a generation.

Skillet, Vital Signs. Album Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Black Mirror, White Christmas. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jon Hamm, Rafe Spall, Oona Chaplin, Natalie Tena, Janet Montgomery, Rasmus Hardiker, Dan Li, Ken Drury, Zahra Ahmed, Verity Marshall, Ian Keir Attard, Grainne Keoah, Robin Weaver, Simon Noch, Diveen Lenny, Esther Smith, Beatrice Arkwright, Liz May Brice, Nicholas Agnew, Gavin een, Sukh Ojla, Leanne Li.

 

For all the bright lights ever offered Humanity of a future world, it somehow is never as intriguing a prospect to write about a society that has a dystopian angle to it.

Black Mirror, White Christmas. Television Review. full post

(563 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Jack And The Beanstalk, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Dan Osbourne, Thelma Madine, Suzanne Collins, Alison Crawford, Michael Chapman, Bradley Thompson, Jack Hilton, Herbert Howe, Amy Fielding, Kyle Corrin, Olivia Horton, Stephen Nicholls, Georgia Jones, Georgia Austin, Michael Jones, Grace Felton, Chloe McKeown, Connor McCourt, Olivia Baccino, Jack Lisner.

Jack’s back in town and the giant quakes with fear in his castle in the clouds and the henchwoman knows her days are numbered…well not quite, this is after all a Pantomime and the hero isn’t exactly the courageous, quick witted type.

Jack And The Beanstalk, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(507 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Pete Wylie, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Great songs are the only currency that counts. It really is that simple.

So, with a successful Pledge campaign in his back pocket and a brand new guitarist and consigliore standing stage left, Pete Wylie returned to The Zanzibar to wrap up his busiest year in a decade, before turning attention to the imminent recording of a new album.

Pete Wylie, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. (2014) full post

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

Little Big Planet 3 (PS4), Game Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Little Big Planet 3 is a creative platform adventure game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4.

The critical acclaim and popularity of the Little Big Planet series is unquestionable as the franchise has sold millions of units and downloadable content since it began with its original release on PS3 in 2008 before a PSP version followed in 2009 and with a sequel to the PS3 game released in January 2011 in the form of Little Big Planet 2. The series returned to portable gaming with Little Big Planet PS Vita in September 2012 ahead of the release of Little Big Planet 3 on PS4.

Little Big Planet 3 (PS4), Game Review. full post

(3753 words, estimated 15:01 mins reading time)

The Peace Collective, Altogether Now. Single Review.

There used to be a buzz of excitement around this time of year. Away from the thought of inedible sprouts that seemed to only be placed upon the plate with frightening regularity, the Queen’s speech having to be watched because an elderly relative once saw Her Majesty dangle a gloved hand out somewhere in Weston–Super-Mare in 1965, and the usual fights that would lead to doors slamming throughout the land because someone didn’t want to enter the Christmas spirit, one thing could unite the family and be the cause of more arguments and that was who would be Christmas No. 1.

The Peace Collective, Altogether Now. Single Review. full post

(782 words, estimated 3:08 mins reading time)