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The Chairs, Theatre Review. St. George’s Hall Concert Room, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Leanne Jones, Paula Stewart, Donna Ray Coleman, Christine Heaney, Laura Hall, Lucy Graham, Dan Pendleton, Jack Spencer, Lee Burnitt, Shaun Roberts, Bradley Thompson, Alex Clark, Tom Nevitt.

 

Tell Tale Theatre have already carved out a growing reputation as a production company that doesn’t adhere to the norm, the cosy or thankfully the easy to do. Their production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a glowing testament to that fact, and where angels fear to tread, where other’s might find the ever growing trickle of sweat just too much to bear, Tell Tale Theatre wrack up the pressure on themselves another notch and produce an amazing piece of choreographed art, full of absurdity, lots of insanity and above all tale of what can happen to us all if left alone in the dark too long.

The Chairs, Theatre Review. St. George’s Hall Concert Room, Liverpool. full post

(458 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Pauline Black Of The Selecter.

Every generation gets the music they deserve. As with politicians, it can be a blessing or a curse visited upon those growing up between the time of leaving junior school and the post teenage years and finding music either a godsend or hindrance to their lives. For those who just avoided the golden period of Progressive Rock and were not bothered with the happy go lucky feel of a three minute song that really didn’t have a message there was always Punk and Ska and one of the leading lights of the latter has to be the gracious lead vocalist of Ska favourites The Selecter, Pauline Black.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Pauline Black Of The Selecter. full post

(1309 words, estimated 5:14 mins reading time)

Buddy Holly And The Cricketers, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When the world of music lost Buddy Holly in a plane crash that took three of the brightest stars in American culture, he was only 22. Given good health he probably would have still been with us today and no doubt enjoying a little stage time or at least sitting in a corner and being a true inspiration and mentor to a whole generation of musicians to whom the 1950s is as alien and remote as playing outside all day and not coming home till it gets dark.

Buddy Holly And The Cricketers, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre. full post

(401 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

In Search of Voices. (In Honour Of Dylan Thomas).

To begin at the Beginning…

The voices in my head always sounded like Richard Burton delivering his polished lines as the Narrator in Under Milkwood. I say voices, it was just the sound of the hero in me, that underused, undernourished soul that waved from the shore at the edge of the ocean as I slinked terrified at the prospect of being at school, college…University, through all my important days, mediocre times, desperate hours, dark relentless minutes that stretched and spiralled seemingly out of control, through my first kiss, then my first real kiss…and no doubt would be there trying to talk calmly to me on my final day on Earth as I waved franticly  to the hero on the otherwise deserted shore to save me whilst I started to finally, and regretfully drown.

In Search of Voices. (In Honour Of Dylan Thomas). full post

(2652 words, estimated 10:36 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound and Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Jason Rebello.

Celebrated Jazz pianist Jason Rebello is one of those rare individuals in music to have worked with some of the out and out greats of his chosen genre but also with the likes of Sting and Peter Gabriel. A musician of great stature he first came to prominence at a young age and by the time 1990 came around he had recorded his first album, A Clearer View which was produced by Weather Report’s Wayne Shorter.

Liverpool Sound and Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Jason Rebello. full post

(1437 words, estimated 5:45 mins reading time)

Jason Rebello, Anything But Look. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Jazz never really went away; it perhaps got selective about who would enjoy it, a little choosy on who would really sit down and listen to the idea and perhaps its brief dalliance with Prog overtones during the whole Brand X era was too much for many to get into but it certainly never went away.

Jason Rebello, Anything But Look. Album Review. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Inspector George Gently, Gently Between the Lines. Television Review.

 Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Robert Pugh, Ruth Gemmell, Steve Evets, Charlie Richmond, Matt Stokoe, Alan Renwick, Christopher Connel, Finn Burridge, Liam Caffry, Paul Dingwall, Michael Hodgson, Samantha Phyllis Morris, Fiona Boylan, Caroline O’Neil, Don Gallagher, Simon Hubbard, Cheryl Dixon.

It may be hard to define what makes the Inspector George Gently series such compelling television. After all, there is an abundance of police dramas constantly on the go, like a merry go round that just keeps getting fuller and faster as more channels are added and then you go and include the Nordic Noir series, the United States imports which these days are too clean, too clinical and far too science based as if they are an advertisement for a thousand microscopes rather than the actual detective, the dogged gumshoe approach.

Inspector George Gently, Gently Between the Lines. Television Review. full post

(497 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

The Dallas Buyers Club, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Steve Zahn, Dallas Roberts, Michael O’Neil, Denis O’Hare, Griffin Dune, John Tabler, Jane McNeill, James DuMont, Bradford Cox, Kevin Rankin, Lawrence Turner, Matthew Thompson, Adam Dunn, Ian Cassleberry.

A lot has been made of the fact that actor Matthew McConaughey lost an incredible amount of weight to portray foul mouthed, bull riding cowboy, AIDS sufferer Ron Woodruff in the film The Dallas Buyers Club that it almost seems to have detracted from the real point of an exceptionally made film. The redemption of a man from completely unlikeable, homophobic and intolerant person at the start to somebody you would be able to sit down and have a conversation with without wanting to take to task.

The Dallas Buyers Club, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

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

How To Be Immortal, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: John McKeever, Anna-Helena McLean, Clare Perkins.

In the back of our minds, we all hope, perhaps secretly, that we will be remembered for the good we have bought into the world. Even if by the smallest gesture, the one thing that makes our existence meaningful will somehow transform the way the world is looked at. It need not even be a grand gesture, the erection of a large building and dedicated to all for example but in just the smallest way, the tiniest particle of our humanity passed on might give hope to millions.

How To Be Immortal, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

MaYan, Antagonise. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

In a world that seems to become more corrupt, more fraudulent in the way in the way that as people, as citizens of a global community, we are treated, spied upon, taken to task for having the temerity in poking our heads above the ramparts and questioning the right to anybody knowing everything about lives, it seems the more somebody dares pose their doubt, the more tighter the grip becomes. Told who we must hate, despise, loathe, keep an eye on for, be like the two worst and vile extremes of human surveillance that the 20th century forced upon a Europe that slept walked almost into death, too few people speak up to point out what is wrong with the world.

MaYan, Antagonise. Album Review. full post

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