Tag Archives: Liverpool

Elijah James, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Elijah James, Zanzibar. August 2014.

Elijah James, Zanzibar. August 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is no way you could miss Elijah James, out in the open or as he sits down to perform infront of an audience. The quiet, modest, almost unassuming man has a following that is vocal and enjoys what he does and quite rightly so.

Sons Of Mowgli, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool.

Sons Of Mowgli, St Luke's Church, Liverpool. August 2014.

Sons Of Mowgli, St Luke’s Church, Liverpool. August 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is often reported as a matter of fact that every living Human on the planet could stand side by side on the Isle of Wight, aside from the logistical nightmare and the social faux pas of finding yourself next to someone who thinks they are a clever so and so and refusing to shake your hand, just exactly how would you entertain everybody whilst the experiment was proved? If you made everybody listen to an I-Pod and made sure that the first songs they heard were by Wirral-band Sons of Mowgli, then at least whilst wondering why you would conduct such an insane experiment, the people stood shoulder to shoulder on the Isle of Wight would have something decent to listen to.

The Inbetweeners 2, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Simon Bird, James Buckley, Joe Thomas, Blake Harrison, Tamla Kari, Belinda Stewart-Wilson, Freddie Stroma, Emily Berrington, Celeste Cotton, David Schaal, Adrian Palmer, Dominique Maber, Larissa Jones, Cameron Caulfield, George Hewer, James Kearney, Kai Pantano, Alex MacQueen, Martin Trenaman, Robin Weaver, Greg Davies.

It is impossible to ignore something forever and when you find yourself laughing at some of the absolute filfth that runs through the latest big screen adventure for the four lads who make up The Inbetweeners, you either have to check that you didn’t leave a vital part of your brain in a field surrounded by cattle licking it and getting a human high from it or ,making a mental check list to watch some of the episodes again to make sure that you just weren’t being an idiot for not enjoying it in the first place.

Jimmy And The Revolvers, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To sing on a stage, to perform as a duo when normally your live set is a tight and almost unbreakable foursome, to play as though your voice is smiling, is something that just has to be seen and witnessed. For Jimmy and The Revolvers that quality of being able to pull off all three requirements to being to being considered having greatness thrust upon them is one that comes with a humble shrug of the shoulders and a unsaid apology as if to say, “Well why wouldn’t we?”

John Chatterton, Gig Review. St Luke’s Church, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

No matter how many times you watch John Chatterton perform in or around Liverpool you constantly feel bowled over by the genuine love that works its way between performer and audience in a constant yoyo effect that never seems capable of stopping.

The set is one that has an un-dilutable power attached to it, a facility to charm despite what many people might think about certain songs, their expressions and thoughts are soon changed as Mr. Chatterton’s guitar takes the crowd past their pre-conceptions and delights and beguiles in broad equal measure.

Billy Kelly, Gig Review. St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool.

Billy Kelly at St. Luke's Church, Liverpool. August 2014.

Billy Kelly at St. Luke’s Church, Liverpool. August 2014.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There aren’t too many towns and cities in the U.K. that are as close physically, geographically and tangibly as Bootle and Liverpool. Many are the people that don’t know much about the town on the Mersey, just over three miles north from the Capital of music culture and the struggles it faces on a daily basis. There are those that even think that Bootle is just another off-shoot, an estate, within the borders of Liverpool. Yet despite a certain lack of understanding that resides in the minds of many, Bootle shares a common thread with its younger but much bigger sister, its ability to turn out musicians who adhere to the way of social conscious and who aren’t afraid to say so. One such musician opened up the substantial afternoon of acoustic music at St Luke’s Church, Bootle’s own Billy Kelly.

God’s Pocket, Film Review. Picturehouse @F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christina Hendricks, Eddie Marsan, John Turturro, Richard Jenkins, Caleb Landry Jones, Jack O’ Connell, Bill Buell, Rebecca King, David Apicella, Bridget Barkan, Michael Drayer, Prudence Wright Holmes, Eddie McGee, Molly Price, Domenick Lombardozzi, Glenn Fleshler, Joseph Reiver, Arthur French, Dave Powers, Morgan Auld, Jonathan Gordon, Matthew Lawler, Joyce Van Patten, Danny Mastrogiorgio, Sophia Takal

 

All it would have taken is the velvet tones of Richard Burton to have been heard at the start of Philip Seymour’s penultimate film and what the audience would have realised was how encouragingly in the vein of Dylan Thomas screenwriter Alex Metcalf and John Slattery had made Peter Dexter’s novel God’s Pocket.

Annie Get Your Gun, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Jason Donovan, Emma Williams, Norman Pace, Dermot Canavan, Ed Currie, Kara Lane, Yiftach Mizrahi, William Oxborrow, Lorna Want, Ste Clough, Matthew Dale, Natalie Day, Floe Fields, Sarah Galbraith, Jonny Godbold, Hannah Grace, Katie Marie-Carter, George Parry.

There is no business like show business…even when sometimes during a performance, for whatever reason, the tension in the actor’s voices, the verve and command of the piece feels a little flat, there is still nothing quite listening to an audiences reaction before the star of the show says a word and the adulation given at the end of the musical.

Mersey Wylie, Gig Review. Palm Sugar, Liverpool.

mersey wylie at Palm Sugar, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

mersey wylie at Palm Sugar, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Sunday evenings can be a time of reflection, the chance to catch up on some time alone reading from a stack of books that you keep putting off, or even plunging head first into the afterthought of dish cleaning and ironing whilst one eye is on whatever the television companies believe you can cope with and allowing one side of your brain to doze off in bliss ahead of what passes for another week of toil.

Laura James, Gig Review. Palm Sugar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7 ½ / 10

There can be no doubting the utter class in Laura James’ voice when she sings as she simply radiates warmth and musical sincerity when she performs.

In Palm Sugar on a Sunday afternoon in which the wind had finally blown away the dark clouds that had got in the way to an extent of a tremendous Liverpool Pride the day before, the sound of Laura James’ voice carried out past the expensive decorative windows and out onto Chavasse Park. Looking out of one of the windows it was possible to see an elderly lady reminisce at the sound of Ms. James’ second set of the afternoon and see her fix on a point in time in which music carried all before it, in the days when numerous and in some cases insidious so called talent shows spat young gifted performers out or swallowed them in the hope of producing pound signs.