Rob Clarke And The Wooltones, Are We Here? E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Sometimes to appreciate what music from a city offered you, you have to delve fully into its past. You have to find out what worked and turned the population’s heads and captured the spirit of the time, the elusive zeitgeist that pops its being round at the seemingly most opportune times and captures the soul of the city.

Eddie and Jackie, Jackie and Eddie, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Eddie John Fortune, Becky Brooks.

Does art imitate life or does life take a big huge dollop of inspiration from the art that goes on around it? In the case of two fellow struggling actors who live in Dingle, the hastily drawn chalk mark between these lines have become blurred and in the end the fractious nature of their relationship, the acerbic co-dependency that has been formed can only lead to one conclusion that both Eddie and Jackie need each other, despite the fact that they drive each other up the wall.

Federal Charm. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

British Blues Rock has never seemed healthier. Perhaps it’s the times the nation is living through and experiencing or it may just be because a generation of performers, sick and tired of the same old thing have gone in search of a musical utopia and bought back a message from the past which says this stuff is very cool, why did we ever abandon it?

Doctor Who: Persuasion. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 175.

Liverpool sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, David Silbey, Jonathan Forbes, Paul Chahidi, Miranda Raison, Gemma Whelen.

Persuasion is perhaps the most potent weapon on the planet, if you can influence your way of thinking on to others what could that make you? A skilled negotiator perhaps, a person of reason, a tyrannical despot or perhaps the biggest persuader and manipulator of them all, The Doctor!

The Hummingbirds, E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The sheer magnetism that runs through The Hummingbirds, whether in their live sets which sets the pulses racing as if being hooked up to the national grid or in the studio recordings which just seem to get better and better, certainly marks them out as being part of the new breed, the surging confidence in music from Merseyside.

Their latest self-titled E.P. release epitomizes this and once more the band has come up with a set of music which has been strung together in timeless fashion and made to resemble a piece of work that gets pawed at, eyes glowing with anticipation as the prospect of each song coming through the speakers is nothing short of tantalising.

Doctor Who: The Final Phase, Big Finish Audio Play 2.07.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, David Warner, Toby Hadoke, Dominic Mafham, Jane Slavin, Nicholas Briggs, John Dorney.

If for nothing else, and to be fair there is a lot of emotion running through this last episode of Tom Baker’s second series for Big Finish. For fans of the classic series of Doctor Who, the final moments and words of May Tamm as the compelling Lady Romana as she admits to want to carry on travelling with The Doctor in the Tardis and keep an eye on him are filled with a deep and lasting regret as this would be the last the devotees and story addicts will ever get to hear new and well-polished expressions by one of the finest actors to step on board the Tardis.

I Blame A Culture Of Crisis, Theatre Review. Kazimier, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lucinda France-Hayhurst, Daniel Baird, Jennifer Moule.

Language is perhaps the most important thing a human can have in its fight to remain individual but what happens when the boundaries become blurred and tainted when one particular person starts to try and sound as if they appealing to all, the loss of voice, the mark of individuality becomes lost and in that danger and even evil can be seen to take root.

Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market, Theatre Review. Kazimier Gardens, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Charlotte Wilson, Bethany Slinn, Iona Campbell, Bryony Holloway, Geraint Williams, Darren Begley, Jack Conway, Alex Cottrell, Sarah Peverley.

 

There is always a new way to look at anything in life, it just takes courage, conviction and imagination and as the weather was making its mind on whether to add a little extra spice and atmosphere to the occasion, The University Of Liverpool Drama Society’s interpretation of Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market was weaving its dark, peculiar spell around a fascinated audience at the Kazimier Gardens ahead of it transferring to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

9 To 5, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jackie Clune, Amy Lennox, Natalie Casey, Ben Richards, Anita Louise Combe, Mark Willshire, Marlon Moore, Tom Andrew Hargreaves, Philip Bertioli, Lori Haley Fox, Gemma Maclean, Lisa Bridge, Andrew Waldron, Lauren Stroud.

 

It seems strange that after 30 years, some of the issues raised in 9 To 5 have yet to be tackled head on and the change in attitude promised by so many has yet to actually come to fruition. However, quite rightly, the musical has become a national favourite, with audiences joining in the fun in a similar way to when The Rocky Horror Show or The Sound of Music is in town and dressing up as their favourite characters from this amazing production.

Alela Diane, About Farewell. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

The name and music of Alela Diane might be lost on the vast majority of people in the U.K., in the same way that some of these isles more eclectic and diverse musicians might be mislaid or even missing from the American subconscious. It doesn’t mean they should be dismissed, it just means that the ocean that divides a common tongue is sometimes just that little too wide, too expansive for a great ship to traverse.