Penguin cafe at The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There may well have been more instruments on stage than you would find in the front window of a well-stocked music shop and more performers on stage than you would notes on a piano but each one was more than needed to give the rich, almost delicate sound demanded by the ensemble of musicians that make up the very talented and very cool Penguin Café.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Luke Pasqualino, Santiago Cabrera, Tom Burke, Howard Charles, Ashley Walters, Anton Lesser, Peter Capaldi, Ryan Gage, Hugo Speer, Matt Slack, Michael Cochrane, Helen Cotterill, Fiona Glascott, Brian Pettifer, Vaclav Chalupa, Christophe Gilland, Michael Jenn.
Where do the good come from? Those that change the lives of all for the better! This is the question lurking at the back of the latest episode of B.B.C.’s smash Sunday night 16th century historical romp The Musketeers.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The band’s facebook page betrays it all. There is no pomp, ceremony, ritual ego to be found; just a simple statement tucked away in corner, hiding in plain sight, four words, four simple words that reveal the ethic behind the five members of Maltese band The Crowns…It’s about the music.
I never feel more at peace than when I can see the view from a small island.
The taste of salt hanging in the air offers a different perspective
to the humdrum, rush, sprint for the finish with life partly intact
that blows with the frenzy and ferocity of the winds in October
‘Eighty Seven
I dip my grateful feet in the sea and feel a different rush take hold
as my heart beats slowly now and
plunges full throttle into a mode that the few would deny the many.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
No matter where you go in the world, the sound of music is always to be heard somewhere. It might not be the music you are used to hearing, it might even be the sound of nature at its creative brilliant best adding the backdrop to your day or holiday; whichever way you find music, if it’s good it will stay with you always.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Genesis could well be one of those very unique bands that splits opinion in the wider music world and in amongst their own very loyal fans, the before and after brigade. The question always being, are you a Genesis/Gabriel fan or Genesis/Phil Collins acolyte? Unless you are one of those satisfied with all areas of the bands work from the very daring and dark Genesis To Revelation to We Can’t Dance, then the question can be utterly perplexing.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, William Ash, Jemma Redgrave, Oliver Milburn, Oliver Johnstone, Pip Torrens, Daniel Lapaine, Stephen Hamilton, Ford Kiernan, Olwen May, Bradley Gardner, Simon Hubbard, Celyn Jones.
Gently With Honour placed a very big size nine boot against the world of the British Army in the deeply suspicious days of the 1960s and upturned the kind of scandal that still sticks in the throat of all who may have served in the forces during that time but also would have caused a stink so high if the British public had found out what was being done to combat the issue of Communism.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Any band that can survive the pre-Christmas atmosphere of The Rainbow in the area of Birmingham called Digbeth, a place in which poets have trembled and the packets of pork scratchings come with their own serving suggestion, will always surely go down well in Liverpool. The Twang exemplify the bridge, the mutual love in that does exist between the cities of Liverpool and Birmingham, especially when it comes to decent, well performed music.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Even when something is not as good as what came before it and it still manages to beat everything else currently doing the rounds that you can lay your hands upon or let your eyes enjoy in a feasting frenzy of art and literature then it only goes to prove that class is so permanent, so enduring then even the least attractive will shine through.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Sam Clemens, Francesca Hunt, Nigel Carrington, Nicholas Briggs, Terry Malloy, Rachel Atkins, Derek Carlyle.
The final instalment of the first volume set of stories produced by Big Finish of The Avengers: The Lost Episodes is the first to be taken out of running order from the television series and yet by the powers of great adaption and original story-telling feels naturally at home as a sequel to the preceding audio drama Square Root of Evil.