Author Archives: admin

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Little Sparrow at the Studio 2, Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Although some artists grow on you over time, there is an argument for the thought that your first opinion of them is normally the one that is correct. With life becoming far too fast to keep up at times before the next trend or even whim, the next vogue act or person in favour on television. Sometimes you have to make a stand, draw a long line around yourself and say, bear with me as I really want to savour this thanks and in Little Sparrow, the line demands to painted over in several coats of luminous yellow paints and a few traffic stops signs flashing stop for good measure.

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

(455 words, 2 images, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Susie Jones, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Susie Jones at Studio 2 in Liverpool May 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In a night that was filled to overflowing with very cool and deserving female musicians making all the headlines inside Studio 2 on Parr Street, to open up ahead of the likes of Little Sparrow, Ingrid Frosland and the superb Norwegian band Kalandra might be considered a tad daunting. However, for Susie Jones, daunting is just another word for showing exactly what you are made of and watching her and her two fellow musicians on stage, the equally cool Dave Parker and Rob Kentell, daunting was a by word for secure and musically affluent.

Susie Jones, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

(366 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Michael Bolton, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Michael Bolton, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is a certain satisfaction to be gleaned from watching Michael Bolton on stage. The sheer effortlessness in which he sings, the manner of his performance and the smooth content feel of the music grabs an audience from the very beginning and long after he has left the stage there are still fans glued to their seats, mentally and physically exhausted by the intense feelings that have come from one person, one band, so utterly captivated by the magnetism of the song.

Michael Bolton, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(517 words, 2 images, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Lucy May, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To walk on stage infront of audience as a virtual unknown, to throw yourself upon the musical mercy of an audience that had been building themselves up for the main event, to do this whilst the spotlight glares down upon you and in some sort of electrical judgment has your life in the claws of its wiry hands and give a set of your own songs the type of true belief usually found in someone whose established credentials has seen them through a few decades; then you know you are witnessing the start of something that could go a long way to being a star of their generation.

Lucy May, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(386 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Rick Wakeman, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Rick Wakeman, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are some things that are well worth the wait, even if you didn’t realise just why you had waited for them until the first note came crashing down around your senses and you were transported through time and the love of literature to a point of sheer bliss.

Rick Wakeman, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(531 words, 1 image, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Bad Neighbours, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Brian Huskey, Ike Barinholtz, Carla Gallo, Halston Sage, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Lisa Kudrow, Jerrod Carmichael, Craig Roberts, Ali Cobrin, Hannibal Buress.

It seriously makes you worry for the future of American comedy if all a studio can come up with is a film that relies far too much displaying the bodily differences between the two main male leads, more needless swearing than you find underlined in a dictionary by somebody with limited vocabulary and an over reliance on showcasing the university fraternity system and their spat with modern day suburbia. It has been down before, with better artistry, finer scripts and with a couple of notable exceptions with better leads and supporting cast. Bad Neighbours is no Animal House. It even has the dubious pleasure of somehow managing to make the National Lampoon films seem like gold dust.

Bad Neighbours, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(533 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Frank, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scott McNairy, Tess Harper, Matthew Page, Hayley Derryberry, Travis Hammer, Mark Huberman, Jamie Powers, Kevin Wiggins, Stephen M. Hardin, Paul Butterworth, Morse Bicknell, Jessica Stotz Harrell, Crystal Miller, Alex Knight, Lauren Poole, François Civil, Abe Bueno Jallad, Philip David Pickard, Katie Anne Mitchell, Bruce McIntosh, Jean Effron, J.B. Tuttle, Laura-Love Tode, Andy Brooks, Jordyn Aurora Aquino, Dean Satriano, Rosalind Adler.

Frank, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(570 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

The French Revolution: Tearing Up History. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a certain joyful glee upon the face of Dr. Richard Clay as he talks of revolution and the overthrowing of church and state in B.B.C. 4’s The French Revolution: Tearing Up History. It isn’t the smile of a man revelling in the blood and gore of history but rather the knowledge that art and perhaps its wilful destruction during times of great political upheaval, is a doorway to understanding the past that can only be rivalled through its literature and music.

The French Revolution: Tearing Up History. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(530 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Locke & Key: Head Games. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The deadbolt should have been kept padlocked; the catch on the memory firmly kept in place and armed guards placed on every conceivable exit and as for the imagination…well that’s best left to Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez to care for. For the Locke family certainly need them to keep them safe or at least care for them in the same manner throughout as they do in Locke & key: Head Games.

Locke & Key: Head Games. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(599 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Moonflesh. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Tim Bentinck, Rosanna Miles, John Banks, Francesca Hunt, Hugh Fraser, Geoffrey Barton.

There are many precious stones that lay on the floor unnoticed, some that have fallen from the stars and lay undisturbed until the right pair of eyes gazes upon them and sees something extraordinary in its shape and form. Scratch beneath the surface though and not all stones are what they seem and instead can hold a hidden danger that once woken becomes a hunter, a hunter in which only The Doctor can hope to stop in Mark Morris’ latest audio drama for Big Finish, Moonflesh.

Doctor Who: Moonflesh. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(505 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)