Tag Archives: Liverpool

Jethro Tull, Gig Review. Auditorium, Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

All things must pass, all things must be realised, including the moment when you might see an artist for the final time, plying their trade, putting the finishing touches to the great epic, the last fingernail on the finger that touches God, or the finale, the flute of a genius put down beside his leg, stiff-arched and relaxed after a show in which many would perhaps suggest would be the last time they know to be in the company of one who has left arguably more than most in this precious life of ours. All things must end, as George Harrison once duly noted; however it doesn’t mean you cannot have a feast of brilliance brought to the table as you say possible and intended goodbyes.

Jethro Tull, Gig Review. Auditorium, Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

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

The Rainbow Connection, Theatre Review. Downstairs At The Royal Court, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Angela Simms, Danny O’Brien.

Love, so the poets, the romantics and the occasional purposeful song-writer will attest, is indeed a many splendid thing; it is the joy of lost reason, of the possible loss of everything you thought about yourself and the conquering of the soul. Love isn’t about the physical act between people, love is what you are willing to do for another human being, what you are prepared to sacrifice to make someone happy, to look upon their face and hope for all the colours that a rainbow can provide, love is the most reckless and untrustworthy emotion and we should strive to see it happen more often and with whomever.

The Rainbow Connection, Theatre Review. Downstairs At The Royal Court, Liverpool. full post

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

Jack And The Beanstalk, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ray Quinn, Lindzi Germain, Claire Simmo, Lewis Pryor, Michael Chapman, Mia Molloy.

The Pantomime is an institution, one of first experiences for many to whom the theatre is a haven to be preserved, of silliness and beauty, of hearing that loud series of giggles and laughter from younger audiences before they become self-conscious and trapped within the confines of fitting behaviour. It is when you see this in action during the Pantomime that it reminds you of what brought you into this fascinating and beguiling world in the first place, magic, the wonderful world of the delightful thrill, where anything is possible and the overall enchantment that the young mind grasps onto with relish.

Jack And The Beanstalk, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Horny Handed Tons Of Soil, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It would have undoubtedly pleased, intrigued, even fascinated the late, great Adrian Henri to have witnessed Horny Handed Tons Of Soil, not least for the acknowledgment of one of the three revered poets of the city of Liverpool but because of its absolute beauty. To be seen as beyond a performance, more of a living, breathing entity in which poetry becomes fine art, morphs into a moment of true artistic temperament which has been nursed and raised by more than just a tender loving of words, which has music, mood and movement sewn into its very fabric.

Horny Handed Tons Of Soil, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Hard Times, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Vanessa Schofield, Perry Moore, Suzanne Ahmet, Andrew Price, Howard Chadwick, Victoria Brazier, Anthony Hunt, Darren Kuppan, Claire Storey, Paul Barnhill.

It is often the case to congratulate Northern Broadsides when they come to Liverpool, a much loved theatre company to who much has always been appreciated and taken to the audience’s hearts, they have always given themselves the hardest of challenges by producing theatre that has struck a chord with the times we find ourselves in.

Hard Times, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(485 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

The Fratellis, Gig Review. Liverpool Olympia, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It always seems that the choice of music that a group comes out on stage to is a huge indicator of how the evening might progress, as if it is a secret message being audibly sent to the crowd, a musical Morse code filled with important notes and playful notation advising the audience of the adventure ahead. If The Stranglers for example can come out to their own Waltz In Black and Marillion at one time to La Gazza Ladra; it only is surely appropriate that Scotland’s The Fratelli’s, with all their high eyebrow cool and playful intentions, appear back in Liverpool to The Can Can.

The Fratellis, Gig Review. Liverpool Olympia, Liverpool. full post

(546 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Wille And The Bandits, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Wille and the Bandits at the Music Rooms in Liverpool. March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The equinox may turn and gift us the power of more sunlight in which the refuge of the day we seek but it is still in the apparent darkness, the illuminated room and the hum of electricity in which we come alive and warm ourselves in the company of the like minded, the curious and the players, those who are there to capture our hearts and drive the whispers of beige away into the furthest reaches and corners of our minds.

Wille And The Bandits, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool. full post

(483 words, 1 image, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Paloma Faith, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is with the ferocity of a warrior’s heart to which we acknowledge that the world is not right, that it has always had its priorities wrong and the sense of balance that we are urged to seek to uphold the so called natural order, is nothing but a misaligned scale, weighted in the favour of the few, prejudiced by decisions taken long before we even had the chance to understand.

Paloma Faith, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

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

Mark Thomas: Showtime From The Frontline, Theatre Review. Playhouse, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A man walks into a comedy club and finds a way to make life better through humour and observational clowning; it could be the start to perhaps one of the most farcical jokes, instead it becomes the punch line to the best evening of wit and the pathos of human tragedy conceived.

Mark Thomas: Showtime From The Frontline, Theatre Review. Playhouse, Liverpool. full post

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

Place & Chips, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alice Bunker-Whitney.

We are at constant war with the one to whom we are nothing without. The daily bombardment of information, propaganda sheets delivered, in magazines, on television, radio, in advertising, across conversations and whispered jibes about how we would be better off, feel better, look more amazing.

Place & Chips, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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