Tag Archives: Liverpool

A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer. Photograph by Mark Douet.

Cast: Eva Alexander, Bryony Kimmings, Gemma Storr, Lottie Vallis, Lara Veitch, Elexi Walker.

There is always going to be an emotional stance when it comes to Cancer, we are all either directly or indirectly affected by this disease, almost impossible to not know someone who has been changed by the feeling of having something alien inside them, influenced in their thinking or who has in modern world sense, fought it. It is that very sense of the phrase fought that is the emotive part for some, and for Bryony Kimmings it is a word that doesn’t sit right, it implies perhaps fighting, war, taking up arms in a body of troubles and ultimately in a war, nobody wins, there are only casualties.

A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(471 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Joe Brown, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are institutions, there are legends and then if you are lucky enough, if you have the fortune and interest of spirit coursing through your veins, then there are those to whom British music owes not just a debt of thanks, but a rather large cheque that can never be cashed or exchanged. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Take That, Bananarama, Atomic Kitten, Kate Bush, without the likes of Tommy Steele, Billy Fury and Joe Brown leading the way from the very start, arguably the British music scene would have looked an awful lot different.

Joe Brown, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2018). full post

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

Lovehistory’s Trial By Jury Returns With A Brand-New Case This March.

This year, with the shows being performed on the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day, the 15th-17th March, the case, which will be kept secret until the first night, will have an Irish theme and will be based on true events from an actual case tried in Liverpool.

The exciting courtroom drama is brought to life by history specialist theatre company Lovehistory – the creative minds behind The Catacombs of Liverpool’s Darkest History Tours and Murder at St George’s Hall Series.

Lovehistory’s Trial By Jury Returns With A Brand-New Case This March. full post

(716 words, estimated 2:52 mins reading time)

Ibiza To the Norfolk Broads, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alex Walton. Rob Newman, Margaret Campbell.

We all have something we use to get us through the day, that one powerful pull in which insists that we can be better than the sum of our parts or the total of fears, in which guides us towards the light with a smile or which holds on to our soul when we become too fascinated with the dark and its surroundings; the day we lose that final piece of the puzzle which has made us whole, is the day we have to admit we have lost.

Ibiza To the Norfolk Broads, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Jersey Boys, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Michael Watson, Simon Bailey, James Winter, Karl James Wilson, Stephen O’ Brien, Joel Elferink, Mark Heenehan, Arnold Mabhena, Tara Young, Olive Robinson, Amy Thiroff, Dan O’ Brien, Peter Nash.

Musicians: Francis Goodhand, Tom Theakston, Sarah Burrell, Christian Sutherland, Iestyn Jones, Samuel Firsht.

There are many voices, lauded, passionate, full of life, that we hear every day, their songs enthral us, unite us, remind of what it is too feel, to be part of something bigger that we might believe ourselves to be. What we do forget though is the stories behind those voices, we forget as we listen to our favourite song or sit in the blissful memory of a tune that transports us back in time, that the songs came from somewhere deep and personal, that they are the product of a moment that is forever framed.

Jersey Boys, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(529 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

The Selecter, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Art Comes First, those three words must be true, not only does the enigmatic and iconic Pauline Black declare it on the back of her jacket inside the Liverpool Olympia, in her presence on stage, in the way this woman to whom the world stops and trembles because of her honest and forthright views, shouted in many different phrases between songs, the small whisper of love and the wonderful sneered boom of derision to those who make life difficult for anyone who has an ounce of creativity in their bones.

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

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

The Beat, Gig Review. The Olympia, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The beat remains important, without it, without that palpitation in the chest, the rhythm in the soul and the expectation of the overwhelming passion for life, then what is the point of existence, it would just come down to a series of 0 and 1s, to the coldness of science and the drudgery of only letting off steam in a calculated, disciplined way. The beat, that recurring, rhythmic resonating in each of us if we listen closely, that is the sound of being alive and passionate. It is sound that The Beat remember and offer with charm and dexterity of purpose and it is still the one that snaps the fingers and makes the heart jump for joy.

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

(529 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Jay Taylor and Patrick Robinson as Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson in Baskerville: Photograph by Ellie Kurttz.

Cast: Bessie Carter, Edward Harrison, Ryan Pope, Patrick Robinson, Jay Taylor.

There is a demonic howl that punctures the thick Devonshire Fog and finds the way to install the first wave of fear in a man’s heart, the moors have the air of the unnatural and spectral feeling its way like spindly fingers through a solid, almost impenetrable web, the hand upon the shoulder, the heavy, phantom breathing of the curse that has weaved its way into the family history is close by and the eyes start to glow blood red, evil and death locked in its slavering, hungry teeth.

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Peter Pan, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Dane Bowers, Claire Simmo, Lewis Pryor, Joanne Harper, Michael Chapman, Georgia Austin, Chris Barton, Eleiyah Navis, Adam Coyne, Alliyah Hennessey, Libby Sunter, Faye Keating, Rachel Heron, Libby Walker, Liv Baccino, Beth Baccino, Jacob Robinson.

Humanity needs more people who see the world through the same eyes, the same clarity of vision that author and playwright J.M. Barrie did when he created the characters of Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Wendy Darling and Tinker Bell, perhaps then it might not be so centred on greed and destruction. Instead, as is always hoped for at this time of year, the pull of being decent, of holding out a hand to a fallen lost boy or fellow darling, is the right way to be. It is an ideal, of being brave in a world of adults, cutlasses and poison, of listening to your heart, of believing and one that Peter Pan flies high.

Peter Pan, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Kate Rusby, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Christmas means something different to everybody, whether they celebrate it or not, whether it is in the joy of family, togetherness, being with friends, surrounded by strangers but with a common love in which to bond, or in just the thought of a set of songs that grab their attention and make the time of year more thoughtful, reflective, even for some bearable. Music is what binds all when the first drops of snow hit the ground and the carol singers can be found with lamps in hand, a weapon against the darkness of the northern sky.

Kate Rusby, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(471 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)