The ViseMenn at the International Pop Overthrow 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
One of the main points of the International Pop Overthrow is to introduce music from far and wide to the shores of Britain. It is an ethos that has served David Bash, the organiser, the conveyor of such thought extremely well over the last 12 years and going into the week-long festival’s 13th year shows no signs of abating or slowing down.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
To be enchanted is an honour many never feel or even witness. So wrapped up in the pursuit of goals that in the end matter very little, they forget or even are unfortunate to live in places which look down upon, the feeling that comes with the sound of a voice filling the air and letting the heart break with a certain amount of joy, it is those other pursuits or government interjections that prohibit the reality of life, to be enchanted.
Alison Green at The Cavern. International Pop Overthrow 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10
Almost a year has passed since Canterbury’s Alison Green sat down inside The Cavern as part of the Independent Pop Overthrow and gave what turned out to be a smashing debut performance in Liverpool. A year on and that taste of what resides in the heart of a woman with poetry in her veins and with an inquisitive mind in search of a great lyric to marry off to a prospective, potential chord has become something in which the Canterbury set of old would have been enthusing over and the legend of Whiskey Ginger Johnson would already be known far and wide.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
To watch Luke Gallagher on stage is to be reminded of times past in Liverpool but with a huge sign around the rememberance proclaiming a possible future, a very bright one for both music lovers and for Luke Gallagher himself as times collide and merge, the coalescing of universes being bombarded by the heroes of music history all coming together in the style and voice of a young lad from Wrexham.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is nothing quite like an afternoon having the time of your life and Fun of the Pier, especially when you can replace the thought of outdated entertainment associated with a Victorian and Edwardian era, of sand and candy floss falling into the sea below and cheap entertainment designed to thrill the masses as they ward off the spectre of yet another attacking seagull, with one that sits comfortably with the audiences at The Cavern at this year’s International Pop Overthrow and in which has the added appeal of The Suns’ Dave Lloyd in attendance.
Paperwork Theatre in action on Liverpool Light Night 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: John Collins, Jackie Jones, Sal Kelly, Barry Mason, Gareth Mitchell, Lydia Parsons, Helen Webster.
What was your most important phone call, the one that changed your life to the point where all that went before it seemed to be almost frivolous, almost lacking in any meaning or semblance of balance, the phone call that changed it all?
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Geoffrey Beevers, Susan Brown, Damien Lynch, Andy Secombe, Chris Porter.
Death has always walked side by side with The Doctor that at times its hard to see where the join might be. One such clue is where the rotting shell of The Master is, Death surely is playing a more dangerous game with him than with the Doctor.
Following on directly from John Dorney’s Requiem For The Space Men, Death Match is a suitable sequel in which Big Finish asks the pertinent questions of what it means to be entertained.
I didn’t care where the shooting stars fell
as I watched them travel the night sky,
jet packed, pre-historic revolutionary travellers
falling to ground in chunks, bombarding the Earth,
causing small dimples to pock-mark the scared green land,
for all I cared about was the dimples in your cheeks
as they rose higher and turned sacred red
as you watched in girlish anticipation
for another to wish your life upon.
We lay atop the roof of your Volkswagan, your baby,
yellow crusted, old cans and bottles rattling
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The small steps that lead into the music room, the wonderfully compact and almost soulful ambient hiding hole of the great and good of Stourbridge’s musical elite that reside in Katie Fitzgerald’s have told a thousand tales, have housed some of the most expansive and genuinely beautiful talent that the area can boast. A talent that is rich and diverse and amongst it all, in the throng of a the marquee and the locally brewed guitar string and distilled to perfection lyric, stands Eddy Morton and his latest album Rainbow Man.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Jennifer Bea, Greg Russell.
A sharp and touching slice of English life set in a Northern Pub owned by a savagely bickering husband and wife. Two is a series of short vignettes that skilfully combines pathos and humour, with all fourteen characters played by two actors. During the course of the evening assorted customers pass through including a little boy left behind by his father – an event which triggers a movement towards a fragile reconciliation between the pub couple, as their own dark tragedy is revealed.