Author Archives: admin

Capital Sun, Gig Review. The Flapper, Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Broad Street in Birmingham has long been the resting place of those wishing to dance the night away, to fulfil every possible legal desire they wish to bestow upon themselves and perhaps a little more if the chance arises. Just off Broad Street lays The Flapper, a venue of repute and in which perhaps arguably remains a stout defender against what could be seen as the rising tide of apathy all-round the country of smaller independent pubs, bars and clubs losing a reputation in showcasing new talent in favour of the crass commercialism offered in other places, the overwhelming abundance of cover bands that seem to strike at will like a python sizing up its options in the face of a mongoose, and like the Bilston Robin takes pleasure in being able to do so.

Capital Sun, Gig Review. The Flapper, Birmingham. full post

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

Amsterdam, Gig Review. The Flapper, Birmingham.

Ian Prowse of Amsterdam. The Flapper, Birmingham. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Sometimes you have to go back to where it began to understand why you are where you are now. Sometimes the journey can be a little painful; it can be exciting and almost certainly overwhelming. For Ian Prowse and the energetic ensemble of musicians that make up the band Amsterdam, coming back to Birmingham after a five year absence proved not only to make the wonderfully vocal crowd’s hearts inside The Flapper grow as fond as a father’s love for his daughter but also showed exactly why lovers of music in Birmingham and Liverpool share a common thread.

Amsterdam, Gig Review. The Flapper, Birmingham. full post

(647 words, 1 image, estimated 2:35 mins reading time)

Electric Wizard, Time To Die. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The thought of being alone in the dark, whether in the physical world or the memories that lay heavy as you tuck your blanket over your head, can be a world in which some never come back from fully intact. The dark is somewhere in which the guide books never tell you how to behave or what to do. To alleviate the problem, the only thing to do is place the earphones over the head and fall completely for arguably one of the best British Doom Metal merchants around and their eighth studio album, the stunning Time To Die.

Electric Wizard, Time To Die. Album Review. full post

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

Told By An Idiot’s My Perfect Mind Set To Return To The Unity Theatre.

The centrepiece of the Unity Theatre’s autumn programme is the welcome return of Told By An Idiot with the acclaimed play, My Perfect Mind. This dark comedy features Olivier award-winning actor Edward Petherbridge, one of the U.K.’s most distinguished stage actors who performed in Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company and played Guildenstern in the world premiere of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Undoubtedly an unmissable show!

Brimming with Told by an Idiot’s inventive style, My Perfect Mind is a moving and comic exploration of the resilience of the human spirit. Performed by Edward Petherbridge and Paul Hunter in a production directed by Kathryn Hunter, the show blurs events from a life-changing chapter in Edward’s life and moments from King Lear.

Told By An Idiot’s My Perfect Mind Set To Return To The Unity Theatre. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

The Sensational Riverdance Celebrates 20 Years With Several Performances At The Empire Theatre.

Live Nation is proud to announce that the Riverdance 20^th Anniversary Tour will visit 16 venues across the U.K. including a visit to the Liverpool Empire Theatre between Tuesday 28^th and Sunday 2^nd November. With an incredible two decades of global success since the show first burst into the public’s heart at the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin in 1994, this is an unmissable chance for U.K. audiences to reconnect with what the Irish Times rightly described as “The Original…The Best”. The Washington Post exclaimed, “Its continued popularity proves that it was, and remains, a phenomenon of historic proportions!”

The Sensational Riverdance Celebrates 20 Years With Several Performances At The Empire Theatre. full post

(320 words, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)

China Crisis To Perform At The Prestigious Floral Pavilion This November.

Since forming in Kirkby in 1979, China Crisis have become one of the most enduring and much loved groups to have come out of the Liverpool area. As part of the autumn season at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton, the band will be performing on November 14^th in what promises to be a magical night of music.

Coming out the city that was bulging with new wave acts that included Echo and the Bunnymen, The Teardrop Explodes and Frankie Goes to Hollywood, both Gary Daly and Eddie Lunden have wowed their live audiences with sets that have been gracious and entertaining and fans have taken.

China Crisis To Perform At The Prestigious Floral Pavilion This November. full post

(221 words, estimated 53 secs reading time)

Richard Herring Returns To The Epstein Theatre With Brand New Show.

On Saturday 1st November legendary comedian Richard Herring brings his hilarious new show Lord of the Dance Settee to The Epstein Theatre as part of his new U.K tour.

Lord of the Dance Settee is his eleventh stand-up show in eleven years. Having sorted out everything from politics, religion, love, death and spam-javelins in his previous shows, the funny-man is now in a frivolous mood with a show about daftness, being uncool and bouncing joyously on a sofa.

Richard Herring Returns To The Epstein Theatre With Brand New Show. full post

(271 words, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

Pilkington Musical Theatre Company Present The Addams Family – The Musical At St. Helens Theatre Royal.

The Addams Family remains one of the finest television exports to have found its way across the Atlantic to British television viewer’s hearts. For those of a certain age and those that have come across it thanks to video, D.V.D. and repeats on the small screen, the love story between Gomez and Morticia is as romantic as it is funny, the family is as cooky as they are creepy and anything goes in their lives as long as the family plays and works together.

Pilkington Musical Theatre Company Present The Addams Family – The Musical At St. Helens Theatre Royal. full post

(320 words, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)

Fables: March Of The Wooden Soldiers. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When those who drove you from your home, took your families hostage, killed, murdered, those you love and destroyed everything you have peaceably raised and seen flourish begin to come into the land you have settled in, made new homes and lives but with always a rememberance to the past in your heart, then do you make a stand and draw the biggest line possible; do you say no more or do you run once more?

Fables: March Of The Wooden Soldiers. Graphic Novel Review. full post

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

Bright Phoenix, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Rhodri Mellir as Spike in Bright Phoenix. Photograph by Jonathan Keenan.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Carl Au, Paul Duckworth, Rhian Green, Penny Layden, Rhodri Mellir, Mark Rice-Oxley, Cathy Tyson, Keiran Urquhart, Laura J. Martin, Vidar Norheim.

Somewhere over the rooftops of Liverpool, a haunting soliloquy is sang softly by one of the people the new renaissance taking place in the city couldn’t touch. In Lime Street an old ghost comes home to face the past and a group of children’s memories are re-awoken. The Futurist Cinema may be gone but its soul still resonates in those that made it their home and for the future, a Bright Phoenix stirs from the ashes of a crumbling society.

Bright Phoenix, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(570 words, 1 image, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)