Oli Brown, Songs From The Road. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When competing against some of the most influential Blues artists in an era when the genre seems to have flourished exponentially, with both genders quite rightly having major success, critically as well as pleasing the every burgeoning audience, to release a live album rather than a recording in which to offer something new might be considered slightly reckless. However in Oli Brown, the word reckless should never be used, it would be a wild impulse to label something so pure as irresponsible and in Oli Brown’s Songs From The Road, the laid back beauty of his work is more than enough to understand that to be captured live on recording is sometimes a good thing.

Oli Brown, Songs From The Road. Album Review. full post

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

Lewis Fieldhouse, Born Human, Raised Human. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Sat in front of a stereo, or stood in a venue under the glaringly sympathetic eye of the performer   and listening to music is perhaps the best slice of Heaven any human being can hope to have. It transcends almost any other pursuit save actually playing the often exquisite notes and receiving the nods of hopeful approval from the listener. Although the word divine brings up the idea of something celestial or perceived God-like state, it is as close to the delight you feel when listening to Lewis Fieldhouse’s new E.P.  Born Human, Raised Human.

Lewis Fieldhouse, Born Human, Raised Human. E.P. Review. full post

(294 words, estimated 1:11 mins reading time)

The Real Great Escape, Television Review. B.B.C. 4

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * * *

The 1963 film The Great Escape which starred Steve McQueen, James Garner, Donald Pleasance, Charles Bronson and Richard Attenborough is one of the iconic motion pictures, alongside Escape From Sobibor, that represent forever the spirit shown by Second World War prisoners of war or those incarcerated in death camps in their attempt to escape their surroundings. However the film, no matter how thrilling, never really captured the man behind the mass escape from Stalag Luft III, the resilient and self-assured Roger Bushell.

The Real Great Escape, Television Review. B.B.C. 4 full post

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

Bulgakov’s Masterpiece, The Master And Margarita, Comes To The Unity Theatre.

Unity Theatre and Lodestar Theatre are proud to present one of the greatest ever novels being brought to life in an epic new adaptation. The Master and Margarita is a riotously funny multi-layered story that combines the love affair of the century, Satan’s visit to Moscow, the final days of Christ and a fantastical cast of supernatural and historical figures.

Bulgakov’s wild imagination is brought to life by the Unity Theatre and the award-winning Lodestar Theatre using video, puppetry, magic, animation and performance to create an extraordinary show. The Master and Margarita is adapted by Max Rubin, runs at the Unity Theatre from Tuesday 1st October till Saturday 12th October.

Bulgakov’s Masterpiece, The Master And Margarita, Comes To The Unity Theatre. full post

(206 words, estimated 49 secs reading time)

The Rides, Can’t Get Enough. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When one door closes on a the time of a supergroup, a window slides open somewhere with enough room for another to wiggle their way into the hearts of the music buying public’s affections. So one group stops, another all-star line-up is more than ready and extremely adept at keeping the music flowing and In The Rides, comprising of legendary musician Stephen Stills (Crosby, Stills and Nash, Buffalo Springfield), the incomparable Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Blues and Rock survivor Barry Goldberg (Electric Flag), the music flows on Can’t Get Enough as if being conducted by a master infront of the world’s finest orchestra.

The Rides, Can’t Get Enough. Album Review. full post

(400 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Asking Alexandria, From Death To Destiny. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * *

With a crack of wandering displaced electricity, the imagined smell of discharged cordite hanging sheepishly in the air and the heavy anticipation flowing through the veins, the sound of Asking Alexandria’s latest album, From Death To Destiny, cautiously makes its way through the wires and detonates with a force of neutron star fading and its potency being slightly smothered with a well-used pillow.

Asking Alexandria, From Death To Destiny. Album Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Soul Sister, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jenny Fitzpatrick, Chris Tummings, Msimisi Dlamini, Helena Dowling, Katy Lye, Maria Omakinwa, Tamara McKoy-Patterson, Rob Eckland, Amaziah Davis, Michael Paver, Kenton Noel, Tony Qunta, Justin Shaw, Adam Nash.

When it comes to the life of global superstar Tina Turner, the truth is so much more interesting than fiction could ever be. In the latest production to come to the Liverpool Empire Theatre, that life comes to full sparkling fruition in the stunning and outrageously brilliant and musically divine Soul Sister.

Soul Sister, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(531 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

The World’s End, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Rosamund Pike, Pierce Brosnan, Bill Nighy, David Bradley, Mark Heap, Steve Oram, Jasper Levine, Reece Shearsmith.

 

Is there nothing that Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright cannot put together that isn’t just pure British comedy gold? For the first fifteen minutes of the latest film to come from the warped and surreal imagination of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, The World’s End, it felt as if though the run had finally come to a crashing and disturbing end. Not so much comedy, not so much a film bought together by some of the most talented people around but the sinking feeling that this was more about a pool of writers and actors finally admitting defeat and waving a white flag but making a tedious journey round of jokes concerning the drinking culture of the U.K.

The World’s End, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

(504 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Pete Thomas & The Horns A Plenty, Big. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * * *

When Pete Thomas says Big, he doesn’t just mean huge, enormous or giant like, he means Big, emblazed in bright neon lights, all signs pointing his way and saying that there is no other show in town for the foreseeable future and all tickets are sold out. A sound that encompasses the vastness and drive in which Pete Thomas & The Horns A Plenty take up residence in your soul and make your heart skip in time to the music in such a way that it is hard to imagine there being space for anything else in your head. Such is the power of Big, such is the power of the big band feel.

Pete Thomas & The Horns A Plenty, Big. Album Review. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

The Piper’s Lament, Audio Drama. Read By Frazer Hines.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Frazer Hines

Perhaps the only thing worse then never being able to remember your name, is the life you have had. Something that can cause great concern and consternation as you battle each day to remember what your life was like during a set period of time. For an old Scottish man who talks to a stranger in a pub, only his life before the battle of Culloden and the hardship he faced after his return are the only memories that he has, everything else is a like a dream and in David Howe’s audio drama The Piper’s Lament, the mournful and the laying of memories down go hand in hand.

The Piper’s Lament, Audio Drama. Read By Frazer Hines. full post

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