Philip Sayce, Influence.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
You only have to hear the start of the gentle rhythmic hum of the guitar to know that what you are about hear is so close to off the scale that there hasn’t been a machine invented yet to take the enormity of it.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The Edinburgh Fringe is perhaps arguably the most exciting and diverse event to place in the U.K. during the optimistically lazy days of August. The thought of the dark days and nights to come as the year gallops towards its end not quite lingering in the air like a last minute firework set off well after the others have fallen and crashed spent to the floor but still floating in its embryonic state, it is with that in mind that August should be about letting go, of doing things differently and playing it fast and loose with convention as the Edinburgh Fringe suggests.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Simon Callow.
Satire it seems may be a dying art, no wonder when various governments and politicians have done their damndest to try and, for want of a better word, outlaw it, make it unacceptable, to make it seem offensive where there is no offence to be gleaned. They have succeeded by stealth, by somehow deflecting the real reason for satire, to poke the finger of jolly discontent at the objectionable behaviour of those who are paid handsomely to serve the state and insisting by doing so it is an attack on other sections of society.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are many ways of looking at comedy; what floats one boat is likely to cause offence in another. The only way to look at comedy is just to go with it and enjoy what you see, if it is near the knuckle, if it disturbs you, makes you think too much of what another soul is going through then don’t go again, however should pathos and humour, the intelligent and the forthright honesty with a huge dose of the ultimate psychological feel good emotion of flirting thrown in, then you could no better than spending an evening with London comedian Tiff Stevenson and her take on the world of optimism.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The Edinburgh Festival is a potential match made in Heaven for the enjoyable combination of dexterous word play and musical accompaniment that is in the hands of Philip Pope and Rory McGrath in this year’s cool and witty Bridge Over Troubled Lager.
The two comedians work together goes back so far that their comfortable approach to each other feels as though it pre-dates the time when Cornwall was annexed into the English culture. Such is the command of language at their disposal that the audience inside the Assembly Rooms were treated to a show in which the expected may have been seen coming just before the punch line but were nevertheless enthralled at the spectacle in front of them.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Neve McIntosh, Dan Starkey, Catrin Stewart, Peter Ferdinando, Paul Hickey, Tony Way, Maggie Service, Mark Kempner, Brian Miller, Graham Duff, Ellis George, Peter Hannah, Paul Kasey.
The Doctor is in, he just might not see you just yet.
The thirteenth man to take on the titular role of the long lasting and very popular series of Doctor Who might take some getting used to for some. After nearly a decade of having arguably a more youthful outlook but for many, surely the more than capable, erudite and wonderfully strange Peter Capaldi is a return to what bought success for the programme in its 1970s heyday.
To sit in The Cambridge,
the air warm with excitement,
as beer flows and complements to the flavour
of the rousing conversational chase, back and forth,
hurriedly
slowly…
the odd glass or three of
Simon’s Cider peppering the aroma,
punctuated by a Ginger Goddess
staring into her empty glass with the shock value
of one in need of another
after a heavy day hitting the books,
the pages in between and the words beaten
into submission, black eyed, panda like,
sat under constant university
strobe flickering wildly,
Cast: Gerard Kearns, Luke Norris, Shaun Dooley, Danny Walters, Chris Reilly, Anna Bolton, John Hollingworth, Niall McNamee, Ryan Kiggell, James Wilson, Kyle Evans, Sholto Morgan.
The final episode in Joe Barton’s utterly compelling and extremely well observed series, Our World War, looked at the final days of the war and the comradeship forged in the newly formed Tank Company but also the grief and feeling of helplessness and desolation in those that were left behind and who to face up to the news from the front lines.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
There are very few things in life that are better than a detective story. The thrill of going down avenues and drawing your conclusions from the clues presented to you and whilst the likes of Poirot, Wallander or Morse are missing, the best kind of detective is on hand, the listener, who is privy to every detail in the latest album by Mater Thallium, Abandoned By The Sun.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Crimsonland is a top-down shooter game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. Crimsonland is a re-make of a game known by the same name that was released for Windows in 2003 and was actually 10Tons’ first ever game with the re-make providing a rather fitting celebration of a special milestone of having endured over a decade in the videogames industry! A decade in the videogames industry is not exactly easy, but congratulations are not just in order for over a decade in the industry, but also for such a diversity of games from Sparkle to King Oddball and even Crimsonland showcases a clear departure from one another, which takes plenty of enthusiasm, guts and imagination to achieve, so long live the exceptional indie games and long may they continue to flow onto PlayStation consoles for many years to come! However, does Crimsonland shape up to the same level of quality as their Sparkle games and King Oddball?