Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Liverpool isn’t really known for its heavier rock or metal, neither do audiences get the chance to have any type of dalliance with any type of home-grown Progressive Rock, saving the delights for evenings with the likes of Genesis legend Steve Hackett or Jethro Tull to fill the void. Allowing the odd crumb to fall from the top table takes time and even when it can only be heard in snatches in a band it is well worth the wait.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The Lantern Theatre may be more used to having cutting edge and intense drama within its walls on Blundell Street but in the time that it has been open it has had its share of some exceedingly good music as well.
The winter weather may have bit hard around the country but somehow in Liverpool that never really deters people from supporting the arts, in no matter what form, in the city. The wind may have been positively Baltic as it raced up the Mersey but the music provided by Night Howl soon took any cold off the bones of those attending the first music night of 2013 in the Lantern.
A few words remain not mentioned about you and I.
In a life far from unblemished and certainly not focused
We let it slip beyond the boundaries, wither and die.
As with a famine caused by confusion and crafty locusts
That tore at the flesh of our tarnished pride
To leave nothing but shells of who we were
Screaming injustice and asking supporters to take a side
Between the myopic misery and a memory sour and blur.
This bitterness breaks us both
And sees the life left over now in living decay and dust
The tubes feed me familiar words as they feed you life.
I have never met you, I had no awareness of your existence
Until recently and I have seen little of your suffering and strife.
I don’t possess the wit or the talent to write what your life meant in one sentence.
I can measure only in minute amounts your memories by fleeting photograph
On a delicate digital screen, that cumbersome and dishonest
Perverted distorter of your life, which doesn’t show all you have loved and how you laugh,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Tim Lynskey, Matt Rutter.
There can be no doubt that Tim Lynskey, Matt Rutter and Robert Farquhar make a formidable and astonishing team. The exhaustive and physical brilliance that Mr. Lynskey and Mr. Rutter bring to the Unity Theatre is matched stride for stride in the writing by Robert Farquhar and in The Art of Falling Apart there is very little time for the audience to get blasé as they are bombarded with a section of a man’s life that is unraveling and unwinding before everyone’s eyes.
Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Merseyside undisputedly produces some great bands of every music genre that it is possible to list and yet somehow in amongst the maelstrom and cacophony of disparate tunes and compositions, heavy metal doesn’t get that much of a look in. Very few bands have touched upon the field of crashing and brutal guitars placed within the heart of a superb drum beat and told the tale in Liverpool. From out of the darkness come the Wirral’s Buckle Tongue and one of the new great bands to watch out for in 2013.
Ben Jones of Path Unknown. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
To perform your debut gig in the spotlight of the o2 Academy’s glare takes some supreme effort and fortitude, to achieve the appreciation of an audience when you are effectively a band member down and still sound extremely good takes a band that have a great future in front of them. For Path Unknown, all bodes well and they certainly won’t be unknown for long.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Coleen Nolan, Liz McClarnon, Pete Price, Pauline Daniels, Billy Boyle, Shaun Mason, Kieran Jae, Edward Griffith.
The Empire Theatre always has the reputation of hosting the most sumptuous and glistering pantomime productions and this year has been no exception as the cast for Cinderella provided a fantastic evening’s entertainment for the assembled audience.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Lisa Symonds, Jason Carragher, Hannah Ruth Cooke, Jamie Stuart, Sam Liu, Douglas Austin, Jessica Olwyn, Justine Williams, Lauren Naylor, Laura Ryan.
The Lantern Theatre may have only just celebrated its first birthday but what an end to the 2012 season with their showcasing Purplecoat Productions of Jim Cartwright’s The Rise and Fall of Little Voice.
Tommy Scott at the 02 Academy, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
If you are after a spectacular party to round off a fantastic year of music in Liverpool then you should look no further than the city’s own band, Space. The personnel may have changed since the heady days of the 1990’s but there is no doubting the essential and unique brand of cool that Tommy Scott, Franny Griffiths, Allan Jones, Phil Hartley and Ryan Clarke bring to the stage for the audience to have some serious fun too.