Doctor Who: Breaking Bubbles And Other Stories. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Jemma Churchill, Andy Secombe, Allison McKenzie, Janet Henfrey, Jessica Knappett, Paul Panting, Anjella Mackintosh, Phil Mulryne, Johnny Gibbon, Toby Fountain.

There are times when Big Finish pulls something rather terrific out of the bag and what the listener hears is the culmination of endeavour, love and devotion mixed with the art of excellent story telling. There are many full length stories that fall into the category, some with so much ease that they feel as though the writer has had the moment of divine interpretation placed between their ears. On the rarer occasion, it falls to four separate writers to bring out the special in the speciality in providing a voice for the much loved Time Lord.

Doctor Who: Breaking Bubbles And Other Stories. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(655 words, estimated 2:37 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Zygon Hunt. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Michael Maloney, Gillian Kearney, James George, Steven Alexander, Nicholas Briggs.

It only takes one of the finest creations from the classic television series and all seems well within the Tom Baker range of audio dramas from Big Finish.

Doctor Who: Zygon Hunt. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(657 words, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)

Mudcats Blues Trio. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Sheffield is famous for many things, especially its music. From the Human League to Pulp and all points in between and all those to come after, the silver runs through the veins of its people like a smelting pot of finely cast talent and bronzed off honesty.

Mudcats Blues Trio. Album Review. full post

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

One Man, Two Guvnors. Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Emma Barton, Derek Elroy, Shaun Williamson, Jasmyn Banks, David Verrey, Edward Hancock, Gavin Spokes, Alicia Davies, Patrick Warner, Elliot Harper, Michael Dylan, Lace Akpojaro, Owen Guerin, Mark Hayden, Katherine Moraz, Catherine Morris, Joseph O’ Malley.

Nobody can serve or be beholden to two people at the same time. Loyalties are not just split but they create a chasm so wide that even Eddie Kidd would have found it impossible to cross. However a single production to cater to the comedy needs of 2,400 people, especially if it is the National Theatre’s gem One Man, Two Guvnors.

One Man, Two Guvnors. Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

New Tricks, Deep Swimming. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Anthony Calf, Barnaby Kay, Charlotte Cornwell, Patricia Potter, Clare Higgins, Ian Redford, Kika Markham, Rosie Biggs, Stuart McMilan, Amy Jayne, Laura Patch.

In arguably one of the most relevant episodes of New Tricks since the programme was devised, the UCOS team are charged with looking into the distant past and the events of a man’s death on a protest march in London in the early 1980s.

New Tricks, Deep Swimming. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

Beverley Craven Change Of Heart. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

No matter what, fans of Beverley Craven will always have the near perfect image; the sound of a beautiful and sensuous voice embraced so hard around their memories that not even a fairly average album could shake their belief in her. Which is good, for Beverly Craven is one of those artists that you want to love, that you want her to take you by the hand and lead you down many roads and personal alleyways in which have made her music so enticingly intimate and friendly down the years.

Beverley Craven Change Of Heart. Album Review. full post

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

Doctor Who: Into The Dalek. Television Review, B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Nicholas Briggs, Zawe Ashton, Michael Smiley, Samuel Anderson, Laura Dos Santos, Ben Crompton, Bradley Ford, Michelle Morris, Nigel Betts, Ellis George, Barnaby Edwards.

For anyone who ever wondered what it would be like to be placed within the very heart of the most dangerous creature in existence, then the latest episode of Doctor Who, Into The Dalek almost provided the answer to that fantastic question. Until they find a way to see into the very soul of the Time Lord, seeing inside a Dalek who has discovered the point of existence beyond the blasted horizon by the Denisons of destruction encased in Dalekanium ranks almost as high.

Doctor Who: Into The Dalek. Television Review, B.B.C. full post

(498 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Paul Straws, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track Festival: The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Paul Straws at The Bluecoat, August 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If Jo Bywater’s set for Above the Beaten Track Festival inside the Bluecoat could be seen as a personal revolution then Paul Straws evening appearance should be seen as the start of pleasing and game changing mutiny.

Paul Straws, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track Festival: The Bluecoat, Liverpool. full post

(512 words, 1 image, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Me And Deboe, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track Festival: The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

ME And Deboe at The Bluecoat in Liverpool. August 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To dislike ME and Deboe is to have the same outlook as a block of stone being chipped away by the most inept and undedicated of Masons, for just to be in front of Mercy Elise and Sarah Deboe is to understand that music is the most perfect of pursuits.

Me And Deboe, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track Festival: The Bluecoat, Liverpool. full post

(568 words, 1 image, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Jo Bywater, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track Festival: The Bluecoat, Liverpool.

Jo Bywater at The Bluecoat, Liverpool. August 2014. Photograph by Mr. Graham Holland.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Revolution and even evolution can be triggered by adversity, the moment in which personal hardship or disaster upon a species or a country can be the catalyst in which change happens. Revolution is not something to be feared, unless you are the oppressor, if you are the one in which is placing your boot upon a human face, revolution is only wrong when the incorrect dogma takes a fall and evolution is as inevitable as empires crashing to dust eventually.

Jo Bywater, Gig Review. Above The Beaten Track Festival: The Bluecoat, Liverpool. full post

(442 words, 1 image, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)