Author Archives: admin

Vintage Blue, No Going Back. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Chicago just happens to be one of the great American cities, full of wonder, a sense of heritage and iconoclasm having been showered upon it as one of the Great Lakes feeds its natural hunger and gives the city its cold stirring breath in winter and baked beautiful days in summer. It has been the resting place of American Mob culture, of iconic films and even more iconic bands, for example the truly distinguished band that bares the cities name. To the North Canada, to the East New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston and nothing rivals it as hub of industry and humanity till you reach the southern shores of the country. It is truly a remarkable city. From out of that place in which Lake Michigan freezes and drives an icy blast comes a smashing new band, Vintage Blue, and their album No Going Back.

Vintage Blue, No Going Back. Album Review. full post

(514 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Fargo: The Heap. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Colin Hanks, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenlirk, Keith Carradine, Joey King, Kate Walsh, Russell Harvard, Tom Musgrave, Stephen Root, Helena Mattsson, Julie Ann Emery, Rachel Blanchard, Susan Park, Gary Valentine, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Marty Antonini, Liam Green, Atticus Dean Mitchell, Leslie Maynes, James D. Hopkin, Christopher Rosamond, Dan Redican, Richard Sherry, Jade Davis, Carrie Coak, Jennifer Copping, Dayle Krall, Barkhad Abdirahman.  

Fargo: The Heap. Television Review. full post

(492 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Jack White, Lazaretto. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It can’t be a coincidence, no matter how good The White Stripes were, and they were rather first-rate for the vast majority of songs that they produced, that Jack White has just got better and better as a musician and lyric writer since those long gone halcyon days. His latest solo album, Lazaretto, is one of such quality that it is hard to ignore. The American Rock/Country/Celtic vibe hybrid is a fascinating delve into the mind of one of America’s real musical icons of the last 15 years that at times you have to wonder if the man will ever bother writing an autobiography, for everything you think you want to know is played out in the lyrics of his enormous body of work.

Jack White, Lazaretto. Album Review. full post

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

L’Étranger, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Luke Barton, Charlotte Wilson, George Doran, Liam Hale.

Two of life’s undoubted pleasures are seeing a piece of work for the first ever time on stage, played and directed with so much passion you could almost believe someone could be having an affair with the themes and words of Albert Camus and sending them flowers every weekend, and watching someone you first saw on stage many years ago, trusting your gut that their performance was magnificent, then catching them again and knowing that what you thought of their early promise was correct and they are now just sublime and outstanding. Two great pleasures in one play, L’Étranger, at the Everyman Theatre; life really is surrounded by strangers, clowns and shining brilliance.

L’Étranger, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(413 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Thea Gilmore, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To be in Liverpool as a music fan you really do have to pinch yourself sometimes just to make sure that what you are feeling is true and not just a karmic evil spirit giving you a good time only to say at the end, “None of it was true, it was all a dream, how’s that for Karma; love the rest of the U.K.”

Thea Gilmore, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(612 words, 1 image, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Nigel Stonier, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Nigel Stonier at The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Nigel Stonier at The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When you are an accomplished and forthright musician and producer, it must be high level of instinct that drives the musical notes down the veins and out into the public arena; especially when you are opening the evening for a very talented lady who can charm the socks off an audience just by opening her mouth and letting the lush tones fall where they may.

Nigel Stonier, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(424 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Then And Now, Theatre Review. Gregson Institute, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 71/2/10

Cast: Darren Pritchard, Helen Turner, Paul Taylor, Zoe Vaux.

Writer: Tom Critch.

Time has a habit of playing tricks on you. What can seem, through the eyes of a 17 year old a bedroom like palace with more space than you know how to fill, 26 years later you wonder when seeing that room again, just how you got every possession you owned in the cramped, confined plot you called a bedroom. What happens though when you allow your eyes access to time and consent it to see things that aren’t there, that somehow accepts time to play a trick on your perception of the scene playing out in front of you? For those who made their way to the Gregson Institute, Tom Critch’s play, Then and Now, did exactly that and for such a young writer, Tom Critch nailed it on the head with such accuracy it positively glowed in the sparks that followed.

Then And Now, Theatre Review. Gregson Institute, Liverpool. full post

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

The Blue Touch, Theatre Review. The Gregson Institute, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Daisy Leigh, Shaun Stanley, Claire Kelly, Andrew Walsh.

Writer: Karla Sweet.

Grin Theatre delights in the story in which causes a ripple a shock throughout the audience, whether the well-intended, the deeply fascinating or the type that leaves a seismic tremor waiting to erupt in your stomach, Grin Theatre have it delightfully covered.

Karla Sweet’s contribution to Grin Theatre’s Young Playwrights Showcase certainly fell in to the final category to the point that anybody within a mile radius of the Gregson institute might have felt the lurking beginnings of a judder as the audience realised just exactly what was happening to the family in the play but also the trembling violence and retribution in which to come.

The Blue Touch, Theatre Review. The Gregson Institute, Liverpool. full post

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

Laying Tracks, Theatre Review. The Gregson Institute, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Elaine Stewart, Ben Sherlock, Ann Edwards.

Writer: Jack Stanley.

Grin Theatre and new writing, it goes hand in hand with a newly temperate person finding they adore the taste of Ginger Beer, an England football team being lauded and dismissed in equal measure and the hope that at some point an unpopular Government will fall upon their collective swords.

Laying Tracks, Theatre Review. The Gregson Institute, Liverpool. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Guys And Dolls Brings Plenty Of Mayhem And Toe-Tapping Numbers To The Theatre Royal.

After last year’s sell-out production of Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Royal T. Drama Academy is back with another dazzling amateur youth performance with a toe-tapping production; Guys and Dolls. Promising to delight audiences across St Helens, the iconic Broadway musical opens on Thursday 7th until Saturday 9thAugust, providing three fantastic nights of comical entertainment suitable for the whole family at St Helens Theatre Royal.  This fabulous production will feature all of the Broadway show’s smash hit numbers including Luck Be A Lady, Sit Down You’re Rocking The Boat, If I Were A Bell, and the toe-tapping title song, Guys and Dolls.

Guys And Dolls Brings Plenty Of Mayhem And Toe-Tapping Numbers To The Theatre Royal. full post

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