Tag Archives: Liverpool

Juno And The Paycock, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Niamh Cusack in June and the Paycock at the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre. Photograph by Stephen Vaughan.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10Cast: Niamh Cusack, Des McAleer, Neil Caple, Jonathan Charles, Louis Dempsey, Donal Gallery, Maggie McCarthy, Aoife McMahon, Robin Morrissey, Maureen O’ Connell, Fionn Walton.

When you have nothing, you can only go one way, unless of course life conspires against you so much that all your efforts, all the trials you have endured come back to haunt you and you end up with less than you could have imagined.

Juno And The Paycock, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(554 words, 1 image, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

A Most Wanted Man, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Willem Dafoe, Daniel Brühl Homayoun Ershadi, Mehdi Dehbi, Nina Hoss, Vicky Krieps, Kostja Ullmann, Franz Hartwig, Martin Wuttke, Vedet Erincin, Rainer Brook, Derya Alabora, Tamir Yigit, Herbert Grönemeyer, Georg Ebinal, Bernhard Schütz, Jessica Joffe, Ursina Lardi, Corinna Kropiunig, Max Volkert Martens, Uwe Dag Berlin, René Lay.

A Most Wanted Man, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool. full post

(683 words, estimated 2:44 mins reading time)

Magic In The Moonlight, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Colin Firth, Emma Stone, Simon McBurney, Dame Eileen Atkins, Hamish Linklater, Jeremy Shamos, Ute Lemper, Antonia Clarke, Natasha Andrews, Valérie Beaulieu, Peter Wollasch, Jürgen Zwingel, Wolfgang Pissors, Sébastien Siroux, Catherine McCormack, Erica Leerhsen, Didier Muller, Marcia Gay Harden, Jackie Weaver, Ronald Alphonse, Ronald Baker, Kelly Keto, Olivier Marchevet, Geroges Edouard Nouel, Mark Sims, Paul Bandey, Rudolf Krause, Patrick Zard, Pedro Chomnalez, Jessica Forde, Lionel Abelanski.

Magic In The Moonlight, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool. full post

(541 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Kobra And The Lotus, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It’s not every day you find a cobra on stage entertaining a crowd so completely but the difference is that this particular Kobra has got bite. A tempting creature who, had she been placed somewhere on hand in the Garden of Eden wouldn’t have had any trouble in tempting the guardians of the Tree of Knowledge into sacrificing their cushy life and no doubt which ever deity happened to be wandering past at the time, then this Kobra would have happily taken them down the path to true Metal redemption also.

Kobra And The Lotus, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(520 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Scare Tactics, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It doesn’t quite matter when, for timing is unimportant in such matters, but at some point when watching Scare Tactics inside the 02 Academy as they support America’s Metal sensation Kobra and the Lotus, you will feel the floor buzz as if you have somehow placed your feet on a carpet of the biggest, meanest and understandably angry bees going. The buzz turns to a loud hum and in time becomes the type of noise in which images of 747 jet plane, perhaps being piloted by the largest bee ever seen and who woke up with a hangover the size of The Empire State Building, comes across in waves. It is palpable, it is magnificent and the beat is relentless.

Scare Tactics, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(460 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Black Diamond, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is a responsibility that must be faced with strength and humility that if you find a young group of musicians who have blown you away the very first time you see them, you have to go and find them again, give them another listen to just make sure that what you heard was a musical truth and not the first signs of sentimental middle age. You owe it to yourself to go along with a view of dispassionate attention and steel yourself to find that age has tempered your thinking.

Black Diamond, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

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

Rose Of June, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Iain Hopkins, Gemma Banks, Christopher Rae.

Nobody has the monopoly on grief, nobody feels the dejection in the same way as anybody else and nobody should ever dictate to another human being just how long grief should ever take to get through the system. When a person loses someone either close to them or someone they may have only known through the public eye of the media, what they feel upon that person’s departure is real to them and in the end it takes a friend just sit and listen and occasionally talk in which the inconsolable and heartbroken can work through the five stages of grief.

Rose Of June, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

My Afternoon With Bruce Lee, Theatre Review. World Museum, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Joanna Moran, Andrew Di Tian, Rebecca Riley, John Purcell, Rachel Mckeown, Luke Sanders, Sheddie Broddle, Laura Jump.

It doesn’t matter what form it takes, physical, mental, sexual, domestic or nationalistic and governmental, bullying has to be one of the most reprehensible acts that one human can do to another. To usurp your alleged control over another person because you don’t like the way they dress, the way they speak, their mannerisms, their beliefs or culture, to belittle someone because they are different to you, because they might not agree with the way the world is and or even your own faults in which they keep quiet about is something that at times boggles the mind. It breeds self-loathing, introversion and can come to the most drastic of conclusions.

My Afternoon With Bruce Lee, Theatre Review. World Museum, Liverpool. full post

(442 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Steve Howe, Gig Review. Capstone Theatre, Liverpool.

Steve Howe at The Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. September 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Life is meant to be taken with equal amounts of pleasure and pain, of hope and despair and with a certain degree of unimaginable delicate beauty that filters through to the soul as if carried by a being with a great taste in music and who knows that television, has tried its best to destroy any type of sensuality and indulgence between artist and audience. Thankfully it hasn’t succeeded yet but there are times when you go to a venue, no matter where, and you know deep down in your heart that like those that try to feed the constant mantra of “The Economy” that somewhere, somehow, executives have managed to convince some that by staying in and watching the latest act it wants to promote for profit is good for music.

Steve Howe, Gig Review. Capstone Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(597 words, 1 image, estimated 2:23 mins reading time)

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Little Sparrow at Leaf in Liverpool. September 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time has been described as many things, a snarling beast which needs to be tamed, perhaps even hunted down and taught a lesson or two, the great leveller in which all humanity is judged by its actions or even perhaps a companion, a trusted ally in which the truth of your life is carried. Time though can also be brutally obstinate, it can make visits to a venue in your city from a very talented singer/songwriter seem as though Ice Ages come and go with quicker frequency.

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(527 words, 1 image, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)