Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The applause could have rung out all night inside the Epstein Theatre; Dean Friedman can have also performed well into the small hours of the following day if time deemed it possible. However, even the sight of the American music maker on stage for two sets was more than enough in the end to placate the crowd who had sat thrilled and elated by the sound of the man, his melody and his music.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Lindsay Duncan, Jeff Goldblum, Olly Alexander, Brice Beaugier, Xavier De Guillebon, Marie-France Alvarez, Denis Sebbah, Charlotte Léo, Lee Breton Michelsen, Sébastien Siroux
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Even if somehow the name Pavilions somehow has managed to pass you by, by the end of their slot as part of the support for Chicago’s Medina Lake, there could be no doubting the buzz that was circulating round the room at the end of their set, the way they were greeted and cheered during it and the way each member handled themselves throughout.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
If a main act can be surmised by the company it keeps in the type of support it has on before them then Medina Lake should be lauded for being one of the most energetic, most lively and physically demanding bands of the last few years. The invisible energy that had been building up from the start with the outstanding Buckle Tongue, through the Fearless Vampire Killers and Pavilions and culminating in a cacophony of sweat, blistering power and a mutual admiration between rock act and Liverpool audience.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There are mercurial substances when blended together seem to give the potent headiness that makes people swoon, scream with adulation at the very merest thought of having a hand touch a lock of hair and somehow make everything else in the world seem irrelevant; even for the briefest of moments. When the powerful aroma of burgeoning testosterone adds itself to the glitter of eye-liner, a theatrical moodiness and enough spray on pheromones to knock out the navigation systems of any passing passenger liner, then at some point those who made their way to rock gigs in the 1980s may have felt slightly caught unawares by the veneration shown by the crowd as the Fearless Vampire Killers made their way through their set in support of Medina Lake.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Perhaps it was fortuitous that Merseyside band Buckle Tongue opened up their set in support of Medina Lake at the o2 Academy with the song Grow. For in the space of ten months that is exactly what they have done. Ten short months from a place in which they were already impressing those who saw them to a point now where surely they are a band to nurture, to grasp with both hands and say please keep going. Liverpool doesn’t really do the very heavy side of rock but judging by the adoration they received from perhaps even the strangest quarters in the o2, they are ready for bigger things.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Adam Best, Mabel Clements, George Costigan, Amiera Darwish, Chris Donald, Cate Hamer, Jessica Hardwick, John Paul Hurley, Jack Lord, Obioma Ugoala.
There are moments in theatre where the ugly head of jealousy might just rear up within an audience member and show the person what they could have achieved if they were so minded. The chance to write, direct or even perform in a production of Crime And Punishment that is so magnificent, so constant in its relentless look at the way poverty, crime and descending psychosis, that even to have pulled the curtain up at the start of the play would have been an enormous thrill.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Joseph England, Simon Hedger, Jack Quarton, Olivia Meguer, Max Rubin, Modou Bah, Hannah Gover, Teresa O’Brien.
There are some works that are too good to keep hidden from those that would demean and diminish them. Some works may need to be spirited away in case certain people take offence and see the satire as a personal attack. However those in the very highest of offices do sometimes need reminding that they are they to serve the people, not the other way round. No matter how long it takes to get a novel published or someone to take it on as, what can only be described as riveting, in a theatre setting, at some point the message will get through, such is the fate of Mikhail Bulgakov’s work, The Master and Margarita.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Philip Bosworth, Angela Clerkin, Jaquetta May, Christine Roe, Gwyneth Strong, Gordon Warnecke.
Taken from conversations held with 72 children aged 6 – 11 and from a diverse range of social and cultural backgrounds, Monkey Bars is an intriguing look on life that offers new light through old windows as to how the modern world works.
Chris Goode’s script is beautifully written and the adult cast in a wide range of roles, must feel as though they are themselves kids left to run riot through Hamley’s and the biggest Haribo factory in the world.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Roy Brandon, Michael Starke, Lori Haley Fox, Penelope Woodman, Matt Connor, Jonathan Markwood.
The distinctive music, the sight of two comedy greats on stage giving the audience a laugh and great entertainment in two different settings and somehow transported in time from the golden age of Hollywood comedy to the 21st Century comedy central of the Royal Court in Liverpool. Such is how nights of class are made and in the iconic Laurel and Hardy film Sons of The Desert, recently given such status as warranting to be preserved forever in the American National Congress, they don’t come much bigger, then again, it can always be given a new lick of paint and introducing to a newer audience.