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One Of Britain’s Most Iconic And Enduring Bands Returns To Liverpool in 2015.

Baz Warne of The Stranglers in 2013, Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Following 2014’s spectacular, sell out Ruby Anniversary Tour and accompanying celebratory box set album release, Giants & Gems, the Stranglers march ever onward with the announcement of their 2015 U.K. tour which will come to Liverpool on Monday March 9th.

As 2014 draws to a close, punk-era iconoclasts, The Stranglers can look back at what must be one of their most successful years ever. Earlier this year the band celebrated their 40^th anniversary with the spectacular Ruby Tour. Fans, old and new, flocked to venues throughout the land to hear a thrilling programme of music, spanning five decades, performed by one of the finest live groups in the country.

One Of Britain’s Most Iconic And Enduring Bands Returns To Liverpool in 2015. full post

(392 words, 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Mr Big, …The Stories We Could Tell. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

You can ask many things in life but asking the impossible is exactly that, something in which just you may as well lay down all your arguments and say, “Yes, just carry on and be magnificent, nobody will stop you telling your empowering and delicious tales.”

Mr Big, …The Stories We Could Tell. Album Review. full post

(479 words, 1 image, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Little Sparrow at Leaf in Liverpool. September 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time has been described as many things, a snarling beast which needs to be tamed, perhaps even hunted down and taught a lesson or two, the great leveller in which all humanity is judged by its actions or even perhaps a companion, a trusted ally in which the truth of your life is carried. Time though can also be brutally obstinate, it can make visits to a venue in your city from a very talented singer/songwriter seem as though Ice Ages come and go with quicker frequency.

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(527 words, 1 image, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Laura James, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The candles that stand on the tables inside Leaf flicker with eager anticipation. The small draught that comes and goes as the lift that sits at the back of the hall above the clanking tea pots, the smell of food being cooked and conversations that had at the heart of them been spirited questions of the Scottish Referendum winds itself open to let out yet another selection of fans in time to see Laura James deliver a set that sat happily and comfortably with an enraptured audience.

Laura James, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

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

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes. The Radioactive Man. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Phil Mulryne, John Banks, Tim Bentinck, Beth Chalmers, Anjella Mackintosh, Richard Franklin, Kieran Bew, Colin Baker.

Some stories are just so timeless that they can be placed almost anywhere within a certain epoch and they would still resonate and be explosive as if set with a timer, a red and yellow wire attached and the words caution, contains volatile and unstable elements stamped in black broad letters on its outer box.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes. The Radioactive Man. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(563 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The Giant Of All Panto’s Returns To Liverpool As Jack And The Beanstalk Comes To The Epstein Theatre This Festive Period.

Suzanne Collins as Mrs Fleshcreep in Jack and the Beanstalk at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool this Festive period. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The festive season made an early appearance in Liverpool today as an all-star cast officially launched the biggest panto in town, Jack and the Beanstalk at the Epstein Theatre.

LHK Productions return to the Epstein Theatre this Christmas with one of the world’s favourite fairy tales from Thursday 11th December 2014 to Sunday 4th January 2015 for an incredible 49 shows. As always the show promises to deliver the incredible fun of traditional pantomime with a fresh twist that made the acclaimed Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Aladdin such huge, runaway successes.

The Giant Of All Panto’s Returns To Liverpool As Jack And The Beanstalk Comes To The Epstein Theatre This Festive Period. full post

(402 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Gravity Crash Ultra (PS Vita), Game Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Gravity Crash Ultra is a twin-stick shooter game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS Vita. The game is an enhanced port of the PS3 game Gravity Crash, which was released in November 2009 and for the PSP in July 2010.

Gravity Crash Ultra (PS Vita), Game Review. full post

(2442 words, 3 images, estimated 9:46 mins reading time)

Anna Corcoran. Gig Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Anna Corcoran at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool. September 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

This is the show, arguably the only performance in town that would grab the attention of so many on a night when the news, both local and international, in which could prize the heart away from what used to be called despairingly interesting times. For Anna Corcoran, the sweet deftness of a long lingering caress on a keyboard that responds with a nod of approval and its own commendation, is an hour of time that goes by so fast and yet you feel its effect long after you have got home and played the gig over in your mind as dreams embrace your quivering soul.

Anna Corcoran. Gig Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(475 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Thom Morecroft, Gig Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Thom Morecroft at the Unity Theatre, September 2014. Photograph By Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Sometimes, occasionally, as rare as a night in which the stars seem to come out and take a bow for the beauty they provide and in which the moon trespasses on the Sun’s heavenly position in the sky, something just catches the attention of a collection of musicians and they give a performance so exciting, so unreal that even the moon knows it’s time to go hiding in the moment of eclipse.

Thom Morecroft, Gig Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(471 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Jonathan Markwood, Welcome To Planet Earth. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Sometimes you just have to sit back and listen to understand a person’s hopes, dreams, desires and fears. The casual conversation in a pub or coffee shop is fraught with dangers of misplaced cues, of half heard personal confessions and the fighting for the best story of the day, to get the true picture one needs look at the person in the face and listen. Whether it is in the form of spoken word or set to music, listening can get straight to the heart of the matter and perhaps makes for better reasoning.

Jonathan Markwood, Welcome To Planet Earth. Album Review. full post

(477 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)