Tag Archives: Liverpool

Julia Fordham, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Julia Fordham at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. November 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Virtually every artist that goes upon stage is highly regarded by those that wait patiently for their appearance in the local area. They are looked upon with a mixture of awe, the hope of being entertained and taken away from the lives the audiences have found themselves in but few seem as admired and longed for than Julia Fordham appeared to be by the crowd that filled the Epstein Theatre on a shivery and pitch black November night in Liverpool.

Julia Fordham, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(461 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Västerbotten, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a small village in Sweden in which street lights never came too and for the vast majority who resided there it was a shame that they could not see where they were walking in the dark nights that grip the Swedish hills and give rise to folklore, but for Marianne Folkedotter, it was an understanding, even as a child, that it was a chance to see the universe unfold before her.

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

(361 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

She Stoops To Conquer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Alan Price, Oliver Gomm, Howard Chadwick, Guy Lewis, Jon Trenchard, Andrew Whitehead, Robert Took, Gilly Tompkins, Hannah Edwards, Lauryn Redding, Alan McMahon.

The 18^th Century was one of richness in the field of theatre. By the time Oliver Goldsmith’s play, She Stoops To Conquer, had been performed for its debut performance the sight of women acting on the stage was so commonplace that it was an absurdity to have been forbidden from performing in the first place. There had been so many plays that had benefited from King Charles II proclamation a century before, so many talented writers getting more emotion from a finished piece and so many gifted women being rightly lauded that it the art of the Comedy of Manners took off in such a way and perhaps no more so than in the fantastic She Stoops To Conquer.

She Stoops To Conquer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

All Quiet On The Western, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Durr, Alan Gillespie, Alun Parry, Adam Byrne, Ifan James, Syephen J Higgins, Alan Bower, Eleanor Parry, Giulia Rampone, Gillian Paterson-Fox, Helen Shrimpton.

In the year that marks the 100^th Anniversary of the most futile, military posturing and insane of all wars commencing, it is always worth remembering that the conflict was not fought on the grounds of justness like its successor but by people who led their countries down a path in which millions of men, women and children were killed and slaughtered. A path in which bore fruit shamed in blackness and would propagate seeds so vile that the working class of all countries who participated in, would suffer the most terrible hardships and loss.

All Quiet On The Western, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Bryan Adams, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Bryan Adams at the Liverpool Echo Arena, Photograph reproduced with kind permission by Marie Dodd, November 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For the next few months the Liverpool Echo Arena will vibrate to the sound of the multitude of Rock acts that will come to the U.K.’s music city in a blistering undertaking to see out 2014 and to make sure 2015 is another vintage year to remember. With the likes of Peter Gabriel and The Who making their way to the Mersey shoreline, the Echo is getting the attention it deserves, with the Kaiser Chiefs, Korn and Slipknot all descending upon the music heart, it can surely only be time before other more established bands realise that the tour schedule doesn’t always have to stop at Manchester.

Bryan Adams, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(743 words, 1 image, estimated 2:58 mins reading time)

The Imitation Game, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kiera Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Stone, Charles Dance, Alan Leech, Tuppence Middleton, Rory Kinnear, Steven Waddington, Tom Goodman Hill, Matthew Beard, James Northcote, Alex Lawther, Jack Bannon.

Alan Turing was a hero of the British war effort in World War Two. His name is now lauded, researched and cheered for his significant part in saving many millions of lives during the darkest of days that shrouded Europe in a blanket of hate. It was due to fear and mistrust though that eventually saw the Professor take his own life in the cruellest of circumstances under a decade later.

The Imitation Game, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(630 words, estimated 2:31 mins reading time)

Interstellar, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain, Mackenzie Foy, Matt Damon, Topher Grace, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, David Oyelowo, Collette Wolfe, Wes Bentley, Casey Affleck, Timothée Chalamet, Francis X. McCarthy, Bill Irwin, William Devane, David Gyasi, Josh Stewart, Leah Cairns, Liam Dickinson.

Interstellar, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

David Mills: Gimme Some Sugar. Homotopia, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 7/10

Comedy is truly subjective; it is perhaps the one art form that can divide a room quicker than a partitioned wall. In some cases what makes you laugh can have your friend seething or wriggling uncomfortably as if they are attempting to go through customs with every illegal purchase placed in the most delicate of places.

For David Mills, a first time performer at the superbly adept and run Homotopia, the jokes and observances are well placed, they even have the adherence of finely tuned comic execution running through them, it’s just that at times even the hard of hearing can hear the sweat crawl down the neck of the suitably embarrassed as if a snail had suddenly mastered the art of roller skating over razor blades.

David Mills: Gimme Some Sugar. Homotopia, Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(335 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Mark Thomas: Cuckooed. Theatre Review, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are those who find spending a Saturday night indoors and talking about whose turn it is to clean the bin of its watery disgusting insipid farage* that has congealed at the bottom of the plastic container, somehow an enlightening part of their evening. It is inconceivable but apparently to talk of farage is enough to make them giddy with delight. There truly are much better things to do in life than let farage dominate the conversation.

Mark Thomas: Cuckooed. Theatre Review, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(598 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Justin Currie, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Justin Currie at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Nic Perrins.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The noise that greeted Justin Currie as he came out on stage at the Epstein Theatre could not have been louder had Concorde decided to drop in unannounced on Hanover Street and empty its passenger cargo full of Scotland fans celebrating winning the World Cup, Independence from Westminster and the Return of Take The High Road and Taggart to television screens onto the theatre’s front door step. With a smile which was as broad as a swish of the Loch Ness Monster’s tail, Justin Currie sped straight into the set and gave a performance that somehow was enjoyed more by the citizens of Liverpool than by those who made his show in Edinburgh in August such a phenomenally enjoyable evening.

Justin Currie, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(552 words, 1 image, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)