Tag Archives: Liverpool

Jago & Litefoot: Chronoclasm. Series Three, Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter, Louise Jameson, Conrad Asquith, Lisa Bowerman, Philip Bretherton, Duncan Wisbey, Joanna Munro, Wendy Padbury.

Some crimes, especially the ones involving the laws of time are either caused by a megalomaniac hell bent on destruction of a certain race of people or species or due to greed, the powerful and sickening so called aphrodisiac that prays on the weak and gluttonous. Sometimes these two overlap and then the devastation is even harder to bear. Occasionally though the reason is a lot more pure and it is just the way it was devised and carried out that makes the plan hard to stomach. Such is Elliot Payne’s reason to change time, to end his own misery and loss. It doesn’t make it right but it is a lot more understandable that selling out and destroying an entire species for a pot of gold.

Jago & Litefoot: Chronoclasm. Series Three, Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

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

Nina Conti, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is something of the endearing quality to Nina Conti and her ventriloquist act that just makes the audience fall in love with her. The rather special talent that drives a person to perform with a sarcastic monkey or an eight year old inner child on their arms and get away with the most irreverent sayings all in the case of entertainment is one to admired and nurtured.

Nina Conti, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Space, Gig Review. East Village Arts Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When the five musicians that make up Space come home to Liverpool, there is a the sensation of static electricity that rises up through the floorboards of which ever venue they have decided to play in and the expectation of a high tempo and seriously fun evening to be had.

Space, Gig Review. East Village Arts Club, Liverpool. full post

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

Mark Thomas, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Not even a fire alarm going off with the manner of absurd authority can challenge the influence that Mark Thomas has on his fans and followers, for a brief time the Bandstand in Williamson Square became his stage as he gave an impromptu talk on some of the laws areas would pass up and down the country if the people truly had their own manifesto. In other hands the slight turn of events could have been a painful but Mark Thomas is nothing but a man with a plan, a man who doesn’t let convention get in the way of a great radical thought and in his own way he turned a moment of audience despair into perhaps a brilliant act of dissent.

Mark Thomas, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Philomena, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Mare Winningham, Michelle Fairley, Neve Gachev, Charlie Murphy, Simone Lahbib, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Charles Edwards. Xavier Atkins, Wunmi Mosaku, Alan Davis.

True stories that are given celluloid treatment usually veer into the realms of films that gloss over certain aspects of life just in case it upsets someone of a particular calling, not so in the case of Philomena. This is a film that doesn’t shy away from the monstrous way in which some girls were treated in Ireland when they became pregnant.

Philomena, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

(567 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Statik, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Michael Lattin-Rawstrone, Rebecca Rogers, Simone Lewis.

It is sometimes overlooked that people under the age of 16 have opinions, their beliefs and thoughts are quite often more insightful that those in their 40’s, what they lack is just someone to listen carefully, the result, if heeded, could be surprising.

Action Transport Theatre revel in this approach and in Statik, the theatre group’s premise holds fast and makes the most of their interaction and questioning of the younger section of society on certain aspects of life. It is an approach that brings fascinating results and for that alone Action Transport Theatre should be applauded.

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

(340 words, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

Captain Phillips, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman, Faysal Ahmed, Mahat M.Ali, Michael Chernus, David Warshofsky, Corey Johnson, Chris Mulkey, Yul Vazquez, Max Martini, Omar Berdouni, Mohamed Ali, Issak Farah Samatar, Catherine Keener.

It seems that no matter what, Tom Hanks is able to draw the viewer in completely into his world, whether in the imagination of a child but in the body of a grown man, a corporate lawyer who contracts HIV in a time of misunderstanding and fear or as Captain Phillips, a veteran freight captain, he has it all.

Captain Phillips, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool. full post

(604 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

PIL, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Watching John Lydon on stage surely has to go down as one of the most singular pleasures you are ever likely to have in life.  For those who grew up with him as part of their musical heritage or simply because he made a certain television programme watchable for the time he was on there, John Lydon is an iconic man to behold on stage and in life. For those that made their way to the O2 Academy in Liverpool to witness PIL give a sensational account of themselves, that living legend grinned down at the audience and gave them a night to relish.

PIL, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(466 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

The Selector, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To tour with PIL, you have to be good. No two ways about it, you have to be better than good you have to be of the calibre that the audience will take to immediately and have the presence of a Greek titan holding aloft the captured remains of an enemy at war. In Pauline Black and The Selector, both requirements were met with astonishing ease and for the crowd at the 02 Academy, to have this type of pedigree as support to PIL, to John Lydon and the fabulous set of musicians would have been like having dinner at Claridges and being allowed to have the desert, after dinner mints and coffee first.

The Selector, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

All We Are, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It may not have been the sort of homecoming All We Are may had expected as they took to the stage at the 02 Academy in Liverpool but on a night when Everything Everything unfortunately postponed their gig at the last minute, there was no doubting just how fantastic the threesome of Guro Gikling, Richard O’ Flynn and Luis Santos have become

Opening up for Everything Everything on tour had been enjoyable; it was visible in the eyes of all three musicians as they played their music with an added exuberance, an extra zip in which they took full advantage of and above all shone as their self-belief showed for the audience to revel in.

All We Are, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

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