Author Archives: admin

Jack Omer, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Staying in is sometimes too tempting an offer. The chance to baton down the hatches, especially in what could be a cruel winter, is not just tempting, it can be so enticing and you would only be human to succumb. However in an area that really makes other places, towns and large urban societies look upon it with envious eyes when it comes to its abundance and well attended music venues, that temptation must be fought and beaten, especially when you come across a support act for a major star that just gets every musical juice flowing and the blood pumping round a body that is desperate to be assured that it’s alive.

Jack Omer, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(445 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Alexandra Jayne, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

As with anything in life there are slow burners and there are instant attention grabbers. The slow burners sparks, splutters and struggles against the prevailing wind but ultimately wins through and burns very bright. Then there are the attention grabbers, the ones that clutches at the heels of the interested viewer, listener, interloper and effects how they look at everything, both are valid and both, if nurtured, will stay long in thoughts of those moved in the musical sensually.

Alexandra Jayne, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

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

The Pied Piper, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Edwina Lea, Emma Hirons, James Michael Doolan, Nathan Smith.

The Pied Piper is one of those rare stories that can both enthral and beguile and disgust and terrify at the same time, it is no wonder it is such a firm favourite of lovers of fairy tales and that it is ripe for re-telling in as many different ways as you can imagine on the stage.

The Pied Piper, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(380 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Little Red Riding Hood, Theatre Review. The Actors Studio, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Gemma Broderick, Barrie Ryan English, Catherine Rice, Leroy Liburd.

If you go down to the woods today…you might meet a few characters from a classic fairy tale that don’t exactly fit the stereotype and certainly never behaved in such a way before. From a wolf with aspiration issues to a young girl in a red hood that’s far too small and who has changed from the sweet person of memory in a teenager whose concerns are now more to do with the embarrassment that her Karaoke loving mum causes, this re-telling of the story of Little Red Riding Hood at The Actors Studio is guaranteed to be enjoyed by young and old alike.

Little Red Riding Hood, Theatre Review. The Actors Studio, Liverpool. full post

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

Clutching At Straws, Come What May. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

All the world’s a stage and the sense of theatre can be found in almost every human interaction. For alternative Folk quartet, Clutching At Straws, their debut release of Come What May is a set of songs that glide almost effortlessly between the hard hitting conscious thought, of a different way of living and the hint of illusion in what apparently is important in modern day society. The sound of four men whose undisputed talent keeps them pace ahead of the rat race they are urging others to avoid.

Clutching At Straws, Come What May. Album Review. full post

(369 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Boston, Love, Life & Hope. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Boston never really typified the typical rock and that really is a good thing. The bands that were around them around the same time changed their ways and became less in your face and took on the approach that not every rock track needs to dogmatic, the same tired rhetoric filled with the only ambition being to be louder and brash than everybody else. Boston, or rather Tom Scholz bought a new and exciting feel, one more filled with the love of music and lyrics that play with love as an ideal.

Boston, Love, Life & Hope. Album Review. full post

(466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles. The Beginning. Big Finish Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Carole Ann Ford, Terry Molloy.

There is nothing like returning to the start of the story to realise just how much has been left unsaid and just how much more is there even before the commencement of the adventure actually began.

Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles. The Beginning. Big Finish Audio Drama Review. full post

(489 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Aladdin, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Aretha Ayeh, Marianne Benedict, Carla Freeman, Matthew Ganley, Lindsay Goodhead, Sam Haywood, Adam Keast, Sarah Moss, Griffin Stevens, Francis Tucker.

For Sarah A. Nixon and Mark Chatterton, the writers of the Playhouse Theatre Rock ‘N’ Roll Panto, the subject of Aladdin is one that they have revisited with pride a couple of times but never like this, not with the scale, the almost sense of the wonderful and wonderment all wrapped up in a festive feast that was exactly the production and performance that audiences could have wished for.

Aladdin, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(553 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Black Star Riders, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Sometimes as an audience member, it only takes the intro music, the sound of footsteps echoing across the floorboards and the flicker and change of light to realise that not only are you in for a gig of high quality but also that you are in the presence of greatness.

Black Star Riders, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(543 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

The Dead Daisies, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In a world that becomes ever more complex and awash with more art being produced than ever before and from all parts of the globe, it is natural to miss something or someone in which when you do finally catch up with them can either be embarrassment or a blessing. In the case of The Dead Daisies, the performance they gave at the 02 Academy in Liverpool was greeted with an air of enthusiasm that befitted the occasion of main support to Black Star Riders and was firmly in the court of a band that should be appreciated.

The Dead Daisies, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(395 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)