Author Archives: admin

The Hobbit, The Desolation Of Smaug. Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly,  Benedict Cumberbatch, James Nesbitt,  Sylvester McCoy,  Lee Pace, Stephen Fry, Luke Evens,  Graham McTavish, William Kircher, Stephen Hunter, Dean O’ Gorman, Aiden Turner, John Callen, Peter Hambleton, Jed Brophy, Mark Hadlow, Adam Brown, Mikael Persbrandt, Ryan Gage.

There is no better way to round off an outstanding year in cinema that too return to the Lonely Mountain, through a forest of spiders and a tangle with the web that Elvish Men weave and via one of the finest dialogues captured throughout the whole of the Lord of the Rings trilogies and a journey involving a reluctant thief, a Wizard and a gang of Dwarves than to immerse yourself fully into the world of The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug.

The Hobbit, The Desolation Of Smaug. Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

(611 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Steve Hogarth, Gig Review. St Bride’s Church, Liverpool. (2013)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Whoever the person was that first suggested that Steve Hogarth first come to Liverpool when doing his H. Natural sets must surely have known something about how he would be received by fans of Marillion. Whether at the iconic Cavern, or as has become in recent years a sort of natural second home to him at St. Bride’s Church, the fans pack out the venue, they sit in almost breath taking awe, they good naturedly heckle when the time is right and yet all the time the beautiful voice punctures the often still air and visibly moves the audience in such a way that is barely repeated elsewhere in the world of rock.

Steve Hogarth, Gig Review. St Bride’s Church, Liverpool. (2013) full post

(611 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: 1963: The Assassination Games. Audio Drama 180. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Simon Williams, Pamela Salem, Karen Gledhill, Hugh Ross, Oliver Cotton, Gemma Saunders, Gerald Kyd, Alisdair Simpson.

No matter where The Doctor goes in time and space, it seems there is a small part of that is drawn like a moth to wibbly wobbly ball of flame to the events circulating around the year 1963. Of course it is a natural time period to write about as well as being the birth of the television programme that would go on to be a world-wide phenomenon.

Doctor Who: 1963: The Assassination Games. Audio Drama 180. Big Finish. full post

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

Kate Rusby, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To see an artist enjoy themselves, to witness the little escaping of glee and cheer from their mouths after every song, is perhaps one of the great thrills in life. It certainly makes for an entertaining evening and enhances the overall pleasure of a listening to a set of songs delivered with beautiful precision and cheer.

Kate Rusby, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. full post

(449 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Royal Southern Brotherhood, Live In Germany. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are expectations that have to be met when listening to a live album. The first is that the sound recreated on a stage, possibly many hundreds of miles from wherever you are fortunate enough to actually listen to the gig, has to be able to make the imagination run riot, to revel in the flow and thrust of the guitar, to feel the sweat run down your neck in anticipation and to envisage the person infront of you in the audience nervously sweating along with you. The taste of the gig has to be captured just right, else it is lost and abandoned like an errant Victorian child left at the Poor House.

Royal Southern Brotherhood, Live In Germany. Album Review. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Vamos, More Songs About Circles. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Vamos describe themselves as “Ruff and ready”, judging by the powerful three chord arrangements and embracing nature of the songs on their new album, More Songs About Circles, that speak more about life in the 21st century than any Government report and media friendly social workers with a supposed good hearts could ever put into words. Vamos is just very cool and a threesome that almost anybody could hold onto without the feeling of guilt thrust upon them.

Vamos, More Songs About Circles. Album Review. full post

(368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

The Passing Of An American Way.

The taste of Whisky still lingers in memories that I cherish

As I remember sitting at your table with Nancy and a group of friends

Playing cards, no money

Exchanged, the bet, a story from my travels

Round a country that you had been proud to serve and call home.

You smiled in amusement at my capacity to tell a story

And to drink and drink and drink.

We had met the once

In a bar

In a small Wiltshire City where the Greyfisher reigned

The Passing Of An American Way. full post

(300 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

The Waterboys, Gig Review. Liverpool Philhamonic Hall. (2013)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In recent times Mike Scott and his band The Waterboys have given audiences in Liverpool some of the best nights out imaginable. To start their latest tour in a city they patently enjoy performing in is a high compliment to the crowds that make their way to any venue the band would make their way to.

The range of the music, the sense of drama that Mike Scott exudes though makes the Philharmonic Hall a natural stopping off point and whilst perhaps nothing could compare to the theatre provided when they performed tracks from their stunning album An Appointment With Mr. Yeats, this celebration of the album Fisherman’s Blues was none the less greeted like an old friend by the audience.

The Waterboys, Gig Review. Liverpool Philhamonic Hall. (2013) full post

(403 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Ragz, Gig Review. Liverpool Winter Festival, St George’s Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are certain musicians that when they leave the stage after a gig they leave a gaping hole so large that it never seems possible to ever fill it again. The gig may have been tremendous but that lingering presence is enough to just fill the evening with the slight tinge of regret. Imagine then the wake of rippling, surging emotions for a city who had taken a musician of sterling quality under their wing and adopted, as it is that city’s right to do so, to find that she was going to finally go back home to her native Norway. That hole for many looked deep, bleak and never ending.

Ragz, Gig Review. Liverpool Winter Festival, St George’s Hall. full post

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

Thom Morecroft And The Full Moon Band, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are many hundreds of reasons for the unshakeable belief that Liverpool’s music in the early part of the 21st Century is something to savour, to relish and enjoy, not to keep closeted away in some dusty attic room and for only a handful of people to nod sagely at but always going back to the moment that music in the U.K. really started.

Thom Morecroft And The Full Moon Band, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

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