North North North, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Martin Bonger, Margit Szlavik, Elisabet Topp.

There is nothing better feeling than coming out of the theatre knowing you haven’t just been entertained but also educated as well. It is like reading for example American Pastoral by Philip Roth and realising just how much you have learned about the art of making gloves or the inside knowledge of whales you find repeating when reading Moby Dick, theatre is another avenue in which to be cultivated and undeniably enlightened, especially when the play is North North North.

North North North, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Shetland: Raven Black. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Douglas Henshall, Brian Cox, Mark Bonnar, Alison O’Donnell, Stewart Porter, Sophie Carr-Gomm, Chris Reilly, Erin Armstrong, Rebecca Benson, Finn Den Hertog, Anthony Flanagan, Julie Graham,  Steven Robertson, Gowan Calder, Francis Grey, Tunji Kasim, Cara Kelly, Anne Kidd, Freya Monk, Jana Reinermann, Matthew Zajac,

There is perhaps no place more remote in the U.K. than the Shetland Isles, the bleakness of the landscape betraying the cold that sits just below the surface of an island race who are closer perhaps in spirit to their old Nordic heritage than that of Scotland who has been their de facto Government since the 16th Century.

Shetland: Raven Black. Television Review. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Joe Bonamassa And Beth Hart, Live In Amsterdam. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa are like twin orbiting stars, the immense fire raging beneath one feeds across to the other in some sort of celestial storm and the warmth received grows in intensity and the process is reversed, a dance between two stars, both pulsating, both energetic and for whom if one was to be pulled away, circulated out of its chosen trajectory, it’s hard to imagine the other’s fire being seen as bright.

Joe Bonamassa And Beth Hart, Live In Amsterdam. Album Review. full post

(408 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Laurence Jones, Temptation. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Not since a certain young Joe Bonamassa stood on the stage for his debut performance has anything sounded this good for the very first time.

Laurence Jones is a revelation, a man who has left the murky world of desire and flown straight headlong and true into an album of incredible depth and feeling that the listener maybe forgiven for wondering at what point did they cross a boundary between fact and dreamlike narrative fiction. The lure of lute in a medieval poets hands was surely just as enticing as they made their way across the land thrilling all with stories, tales and fables, now for the 21st Century Laurence Jones entices and persuades easily as he steps out from behind the line of Blues know how and announces himself completely with the album Temptation.

Laurence Jones, Temptation. Album Review. full post

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

Frank Miller’s Sin City: The Hard Goodbye. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Frank Miller is an institution, not just to the world of graphic art and comic books but to film also and no matter that he has worked for the big two when it comes to artwork and writing, on titles such as Batman/ The Dark Knight, Superman (D.C. Comics) and Spider-Man, Daredevil and Elecktra (Marvel), it is perhaps the works that were turned into highly successful and critically acclaimed films, namely 300 and Sin City.

Frank Miller’s Sin City: The Hard Goodbye. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(729 words, estimated 2:55 mins reading time)

The Musketeers: The Challenge. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Luke Pasqualini, Peter Capaldi, Zoe Tapper, Howard Charles, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Maimie McCoy, Hugo Speer, Vinnie Jones, John Lightbody, Perry Fitzpatrick, Bo Poraj, Christos Tolera, Richard Symes, Simon Meacock, Giles Taylor.

Just how does the best swordsman not in active service in France become a member of the elite guards known as The Musketeers? Help from friends, patronage from a great lady, luck, skill, taking on Vinnie Jones in a sword fight that on paper would surely have had footballers of a previous generation checking more than their equipment at the sight of one of the hard men of the game brandishing a weapon.

The Musketeers: The Challenge. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(557 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

One Dream: The Beryl Marsden Story, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8/10

Cast: Francesca Davies, Gillian Hardie, Hayley Davies, Nick Sheedy, James Ledsham, Katie King, Danny Woods, Sophie Tickle, Mike Howl, Rob Boyle.

The Cavern in Liverpool is a place of dreams. Even today, long since its golden age and the days in which the Beatles gave all who made their way to the venue a glimpse of the future. It has the power to bestow a certain magic on the thought of artists performing there and the memories of long since departed audiences, the thought of music history forever encased into the walls is one in which visitors clamber over themselves to see.

One Dream: The Beryl Marsden Story, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Ian Prowse, Who Loves Ya Baby? Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

In a city that has produced so many voices, so many ideas and whom all of which have added greatly to the cultural importance and passionate stand against conformity and the bland, Ian Prowse certainly stands out as late 20th and early 21st Century hero. His voice and hand on heart declarations has led to many following his footsteps and as he proves time and time every week at his the ever popular Monday Night Club, the voice cannot, nor will ever be, silenced.

Ian Prowse, Who Loves Ya Baby? Album Review. full post

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

Jessicas Ghost, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Jessicas Ghost, Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Jessicas Ghost, Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

No matter how hard you try, you cannot achieve the goal of seeing all the great bands to come your way in your life time. To try would perhaps be folly, the madness of a person bereft of the need to do anything else and who finds sleep just an irrational pastime.

Jessicas Ghost, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

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

James Michael, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 71/2/10

For many, St. Patricks Day, usually with the celebrations spread over a long weekend, is the chance to party for the first time in the year. Nobody would blame a single person for wanting to get rid of the worst winter blues and weather hangover for perhaps decades by going out on the town and taking in the Saturday night shindigs and social gatherings.

In the Zanzibar Club, something was unfolding as James Michael, a previous X-Factor contestant, made his way to the stage and gave a great account of himself with some well written tunes and some inspired lyrics.

James Michael, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)