Tag Archives: Liverpool

Dinosaur Jr. Gig Review. East Village Arts Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For Dinosaur Jr. to still come across as a well-kept secret that is keenly guarded by only those who speak of their music and discography in the same reverential terms as you would hear spoken by those who covet the inner workings, some say magic of a comic store is on first glance hard to understand. Not for nothing is the music something this side of stunning, mind blowing and captivating, it growls with the same force as a yard full of tigers who have spotted someone invading their turf. Yet, it seems, it is perhaps the select army, those who really understand how music gets beneath the skin who know that this band is something very special to watch.

Dinosaur Jr. Gig Review. East Village Arts Club, Liverpool. full post

(433 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Cabaret, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Will Young, Siobhan Dillon, Lyn Paul, Matt Rawle, Linal Haft, Valerie Cutko, Nicholas Tizzard, Carly Blackburn, Emily Bull, Luke Fetherston, Simon Jaymes, Alessia Lugoboni, Callum Macdonald, Alastair Postlethwaite, Oliver Roll, Alexzandra Sarmiento, Shahla Tarrant, Cydney Uffindell-Phillips.

There are musicals that grace the stage with such spellbinding brilliance that the glitter and sheen never seems to rub off, never falters and certainly never lets the audience come away feeling anything other than wanting to dance all the way home and sing their favourite song with gladness in their heart. Then there are those that are so astonishing because they have made the crowd question everything they know about humanity and the darkness in people’s hearts and in a nation’s deeds. Perhaps it can be argued that only Cabaret manages to do both at the same time.

Cabaret, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(601 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Ed Harcourt, Gig Review. Camp And Furnace, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

With the festival season nearly behind him, Ed Harcourt made his way to Liverpool for the second time this year and gave the crowd attending this year’s Summercamp at Camp and Furnace something extra to hang their 2013 musical memories upon.

Ed Harcourt, Gig Review. Camp And Furnace, Liverpool. full post

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

Me And Deboe, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

If an E.P. or album can whet the appetite of seeing a group perform for the first time, then Me and Deboe’s fantastic self-titled recording released earlier in the year has had the same effect of being shown the menu of a five star restaurant which serves the finest food anywhere in the world and knowing you can eat there for free with a gift voucher but noticing you have to wait the best part of fifty years before you get even pick up a fork and smell the tantalising aroma.

Me And Deboe, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival. full post

(446 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

John R. Chatterton, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

John R. Chatterton has the unnerving ability to make songs that you have listened to perhaps a million times before sound somehow fresh and new. Tracks, that despite having been on the end of radio play and being sat in people’s records collections gathering dust, mean a great deal to people but have become stale and repetitive. In the hands of this superb musician, the music, his own compositions and those he covered were played with aplomb, a defining skill and instrumental ability that is hard to imagine anybody else being able to do.

John R. Chatterton, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival. full post

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

Simon Cousins, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Some musicians just radiate warmth and a sort of musical love as soon as they step on a stage. Without even playing a note on a guitar, just by the simple motion of saying hello to a collected crowd, the affection is felt around you. Whoever has come to take in the musician’s work, be it friends, fans or the surprised newcomer, what comes palpably across is the thought that everybody who is watching just wants the musician to succeed. In that respect the warmth felt for Simon Cousins could keep a large town’s heating suppliers out of business for a long while.

Simon Cousins, Gig Review. Bluecoat Gardens, Liverpool. Liverpool International Music Festival. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Grease, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Stage Experiance, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Callum Cavanagh, Bridie Flanagan, Michael Twigg, Grace Galloway, Katie Furlong, Hannah Pitt, Kay Nicholson, Peter Meall, Jonathan Marsh, Annie Howarth, Tom Nolan, Eleanor Cooke, Daniel Greenwood, Sarah Dickson.

When the Liverpool Empire Theatre puts on a show that gives the young blossoming talent of Liverpool and its surrounding areas, it really does put on a show. A kaleidoscope of colour catching the very best that was on stage, whether through dancing, singing or acting in this year’s production, the timeless classic Grease. Every single young actor gave their absolute best and gave the audience who turned out in their droves to catch the performance, a taste of what is to come and to reflect that the future of theatre in the city will be in very good hands for a long time to come.

Grease, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Stage Experiance, Liverpool. full post

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

Lovelace, Film Review. FACT Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard, Sharon Stone, Robert Patrick, Juno Temple, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, James Franco, Wes Bentley, Eric Roberts, Chris Noth, Bobby Cannavale, Debi Mazer, Cory Hardrict, Chloe Sevigny.

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

(543 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Caves, One. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If you can listen to the Caves’ new E.P., One, and not feel the pulse, the sensation of something that grips the attention and the raw emotion that is stamped throughout the three tracks, then there is no hope for you. The pothole that you poked your head over and scanned the musical horizon briefly may just be too comfortable for you too ever leave.

Caves, One. E.P. Review. full post

(327 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Caves, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To a generation born in the 1970s or before, Sunday afternoons were always consigned to the part of the week labelled most dull, it was the time of the week that came after the fun and revelry of a Saturday night and the near horror of an ever encroaching Monday. It was time for a walk to somewhere there was never open, for people to have a Sunday nap after dinner with the family or if they were really fortunate, being asked to do something in the garden or even painting the window frames.

Caves, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)