Tag Archives: Liverpool

Emma Stevens, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 91/2/10

It took a smile, the easiest of human reflexes and the most disarming to understand that this was going to be a set in which love would not just be felt but would in turn become admiration and fully encompassed respect. For Emma Stevens, the smile she wore for almost the entire set inside Zanzibar was not one of falseness, not just placed there in which to entrance an audience, but one of the most honest beams you ever likely to see on stage by a musician as they perform a set of music that just stole the heart.

Emma Stevens, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(470 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

TJ And Murphy, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

TJ and Murphy provided the harmonic dichotomy on a stage that had been and would be dominated in the early part of the evening by two female musicians, one on her own but with a voice that could break down barriers and playfully tease affection out of the sulkiest stone and the other whose refreshingly bright and breezy attitude reminded the world that a smile can be the most effective weapon in anyone’s arsenal.

TJ And Murphy, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(430 words, 1 image, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Film Review. Picturehouse @ F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Dane DeHann, Sally Field, Campbell Scott, Paul Giamatti, Embeth Daviditz, Colm Feore, Felicity Jones, Marton Csokas, Louis Cancelmi, Max Charles, B.j. Novak, Sarah Gadon, Michael Massee, Helen Stern, Stan Lee, Jorge Vega.

For all the good Toby Maguire and Kirsten Dunst bought to the Spiderman films of the previous decade, there is huge appeal in watching Andrew Garfield play the Marvel Comic book hero and the excellent Emma Stone as the immensely enjoyable Gwen Stacy in the latest Amazing Spider-Man film.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Film Review. Picturehouse @ F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(725 words, estimated 2:54 mins reading time)

An Extraordinary Light, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Katherine Godfrey

An Extraordinary Light is amongst one of the rare moments in theatre, an excellently written monologue for a female performer by a male writer and one which smacks completely of teaching an audience something that they possibly didn’t know was important to understand. For without An Extraordinary Light, what people might know about one of the most important discoveries in the history of humanity, the construction of the D.N.A. Double Helix, could be clouded by the thoughts of those who shouted loudest.

An Extraordinary Light, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Elbow, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Elbow in Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Mr. Darren Moore.

Elbow in Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Mr. Darren Moore.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For many inside the Liverpool Echo Arena it may well have been the first opportunity to see Elbow in such a setting. The enormous roofed space in which has held so many great concerts since it first opened its doors to the public in 2008 now reverberated and swayed to the atmospheric delights employed by Elbow.

Elbow, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(634 words, 1 image, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

Captain America: Winter Soldier, Ultimate Collection. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

The graphic novel/ film/television tie-in has had many great reasons in which to celebrate multi-media crossover in the last couple of decades. From Sin City to The Watchmen, from V For Vendetta to Buffy The Vampire Slayer, each has carried the other with the weight of heavy expectation foaming from its pages or celluloid extravagance. When it comes to the world of Marvel, arguably the heaviest hitter in the world of the comic book communities, the films have been great, the comics have been superb but the tie-ins have not been so enamouring.

Captain America: Winter Soldier, Ultimate Collection. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(657 words, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)

Special Measures, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Eithne Browne, Paul Broughton, Stephen Fletcher, Jessica Guise, Colin Hoult, Adam Search, Angela Simms, Michael Starke.

St Jude’s Primary School has been placed into Special Measures, the universal, one size fits all term, to denote that somewhere something is not right with the system.

When Tory M.P. Thomas Winters feels the wrath of the P.M.s anger at being hit by a croquet mallet in a particularly painful constituency, he is dispatched to tick the right sort of boxes in a North of England school and make amends. The fall out, the so called oppressed kicking downwards is not new but for the Head Master and staff of St. Jude’s the fall of basic humility and understanding looking them in the eyes is one that is too much to bear.

Special Measures, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(499 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Desert, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Giles Roberts, Lucy Farrett.

One of the advantages theatre has over other forms of media is its ability to be intimate, to bring the innermost thoughts and feelings of an individual in front of your face and force you to confront them. The Molino Group does exactly that with Desert, the story of Private Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, a soldier in the U.S. Army who leaked footage on Wikileaks of what is often referred to as “Collateral Murder”, and consequently, today is serving 35 years in prison.

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

(559 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

The Events, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Clifford Samuel, Amanda Drew, Magnus Gillijam, Up For Arts Choir.

All events lead to somewhere. The unseen random strands dissecting, passing along easily in infinite possibilities and unhindered, until they converge, they smash together in such an explosion of such reverberation and repercussions that could be felt for years after. The Events are how we deal with the unfolding drama and how we choose to live with the aftermath.

The Events, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Rade Serbedzija, Yasmin Paige, James Fox, Phyllis Somerville, J. Mascis, Sally Hawkins, Cathy Moriarty, Chris O’Dowd, Paddy Considine, Chris Morris, Georgie-May Tearle, Craig Roberts.

What happens when your worst enemy is you? Not psychologically, at least not in the beginning but you, your face is their face, your life is slowly becoming their life and no matter what you do, your existence is being erased, you become even more of a non-entity, a being of such unimportance that people forget your name when they shake your hand, would you fight back to restore your individuality and own self-worth? This is the problem facing the superb Jesse Eisenberg in Richard Ayoade’s dark, almost 1984 like black comedy The Double.

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

(452 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)