Tag Archives: Liverpool

How To Be Immortal, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: John McKeever, Anna-Helena McLean, Clare Perkins.

In the back of our minds, we all hope, perhaps secretly, that we will be remembered for the good we have bought into the world. Even if by the smallest gesture, the one thing that makes our existence meaningful will somehow transform the way the world is looked at. It need not even be a grand gesture, the erection of a large building and dedicated to all for example but in just the smallest way, the tiniest particle of our humanity passed on might give hope to millions.

How To Be Immortal, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(386 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Bella – Queen of the Blackfriars Ring, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Denise Kennedy, Andrew Frizell.

Whitechapel has produced more than a few characters of ill repute and more than a few of notable glory over the last couple of centuries but arguably none were like Bella Burge. A woman who typified the spirit of the East-End, who on her 11th birthday walked through the same misbegotten streets as Jack the Ripper, who was taken in and apprenticed by one of Music Halls leading lights, trod the boards herself, married a championship winning boxer only to see him arrested as part of a bank fraud/betting scam three weeks later in Liverpool and who in the end became the first woman Boxing promoter in the world. Bella Burge is ripe to spoken of just as highly as anybody from the East-End.

Bella – Queen of the Blackfriars Ring, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Del Amitri, Gig Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating   * * * *

The very nature of a seated gig, the chance for the music lover to sit and take in a set of musicians in a relaxed manner is one that doesn’t always suggest that an audience is going to do anything for most of the night but smile, perhaps take a picture or two as keep sakes of hopefully a good night out and generally let the stress of the day wash off them as if being hosed down by the makers of any soap bar. They might get up off their chairs towards the end of the evening when the big hits come rolling out, the provocative spellbinding finish in which audience and artist can be as one in mutual adoration of a well-played out gig, rarely does an audience stand throughout, the worries of age and tiredness forgotten for a couple of hours as they revel from first note to last teasing goodbye.

Del Amitri, Gig Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(548 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

ME and Deboe, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Just knowing that somewhere in the darkened hall of Zanzibar, the two women who make up the superb ME and Deboe, Mercy Elise and Sarah Deboe, are mentally going through the notes of the songs that are going to perform is enough to send the shiver of musical anticipation rushing through the veins and capillaries, the sense of the thrill to come running up and down your spine and the sliver of expectation to go into meltdown.

ME and Deboe, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

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

Arms And Hearts, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In a night of music that the was refreshingly made up of a majority of female artists, the early part of the evening at Zanzibar did have one male act that was able by sheer force of will and overflowing talent stand at least on a level par with the acts that bookended them. With the likes of ME and Deboe performing in the venue, the very cool Arms and Hearts couldn’t have had a tougher competition if the superb Norwegian contingent of female artists that have made Liverpool their home had also got up onstage and blended their Nordic magic in a tribute to all things Northern Europe.

Arms And Hearts, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(431 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Shannen Bamford, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Shannen Bamford’s E.P., Paper Planes, was one of the surprise wonders of 2013. The intensity in which she put together a cracking set of songs was gently effective and musically comfortable, a real find.

Shannen Bamford, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(346 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Kate Hazeldine, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is nothing better than a good first impression, especially live as opposed to the world of recorded music. Studio time, whilst being very precious and expensive also affords the slight luxury of being able to go over a slight mistake, a small error in delivery, the pause where there shouldn’t be any and to make sure that the next take is vastly superior. Live and in the raw, the full glare of house lights piercing through otherwise darkness and fixated upon the artist is enough to give anyone the wobbles, however there are no second chances upon the stage. For Kate Hazeldine, the only reason why second chances don’t exist in that environment is because she doesn’t need them.

Kate Hazeldine, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(374 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

The Judgement Of Hakim, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Nick Birkinshaw.

Supported by Mark Lea, Hannah Plant, Jack Cooper, Warren Tutt, Joe Ball, Thoma Galashan, Jake Barrowcliffe, Michael Coumas, Bethany Sprontson, Jade Thomson, Ewan Pollitt, Jamie Barton, Sam Williams.

If you keep your wits about you, you will not be harmed. If you keep the information that you hold to yourself and don’t give into the piercing stare, the charm and easy smile of the interrogator then you will have avoided The Judgement of Hakim. Find yourself in left wing book shop, too late, he knows and you’re on a list, read right wing literature, he knows and you’re on a list, buy a certain food, on a list, in fact anything you do in life is listed and what you hold as freedom is just purely an illusion but vital to the trade of the interrogator.

The Judgement Of Hakim, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Tonight’s The Night, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Ben Heathcote, Jenna Lee-James, Jade Ewen, Michael McKell, Tiffany Groves, Andy Rees, Michael Antrobus, Joshua Dever, Amy Diamond, Rosie Fletcher, Rosie Heath, Sinead Long, Craig Mather, Tom Millen, Darryl Paul, Ricky Rojas, Lindsay Tierney, Spin.

Rod Stewart certainly belongs in the pantheon of all-time greats of performers that have bridged both sides of The Atlantic Ocean. His music is as popular as it perhaps ever was and still gets performed live by a man whose life off stage is as interesting to millions as the music he has helped make musically immortal. That immortality will perhaps continue long after the end of the next decade and beyond with Ben Elton’s latest foray into the world of musical theatre in The Rod Stewart Musical, Tonight’s The Night.

Tonight’s The Night, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Once A Catholic, Theatre Review. Royal Court, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Richard Bremner, Calum Callaghan, Sean Campion, Clare Cathcart, Oliver Coopersmith, Kate Lock, Molly Logan, Amy Morgan, Katherine Rose Morley, Cecilia Noble.

If you are bad, apparently as the saying perhaps misleadingly suggests, you will go to Hell. However if you are good, if you are very good and eat everything set before you and say your prayers and remember to confess your sins, you might just be fortunate enough to see one of the best comedies likely to hit Liverpool this year, the beautifully irreverent, the supremely funny Once A Catholic.

Once A Catholic, Theatre Review. Royal Court, Liverpool. full post

(526 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)