Tag Archives: Liverpool

Chris Callander, Gig Review. The Courtroom Cafe, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Life is too short, even if you take the care to go out as much as possible, to see the world, to throw yourself into the arena everyday and take Life out to spank every so often to show that it cannot dominate you, that it must not try to subject to its whim, you will still won’t be able to do all the things you believe are worthy of your time and effort. Time is cruel, there is so much to see, so much to listen too; however if you do one thing this year, of Time fights back and you can only make certain of doing one thing, then being in attendance at a gig involving Chris Callander is surely one to hang on.

Chris Callander, Gig Review. The Courtroom Cafe, Liverpool. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

David Neville King, Gig Review. The Courtroom Cafe, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Liverpool Acoustics’ new home of the Courtroom Café not only suits the requirements of the musicians who pass through the heavy wooden door and up past the six once grand steps befitting the buildings former occupants and Liverpool’s heritage, it sounds great as well, the fabric of the building, the history of the area in and around the older parts of the city somehow adding a weight of mystery and enthusiasm to the proceedings.

David Neville King, Gig Review. The Courtroom Cafe, Liverpool. full post

(396 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Jackie, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, John Hurt, Richard E. Grant, Casper Phillipson, Beth Grant, John Carroll Lynch, Max Casella, Sara Verhagen, Hélène Kuhn, Deborah Findlay, Corey Johnson, Aiden O’ Hare, Ralph Brown, David Caves, Penny Downie, Georgie Glen, Julie Judd, Peter Hudson, John Paval, Bill Dunn, Vivienne Vernes, Craig Sechler, Rebecca Compton, David DeBoy, Stéphane Höhn, Serge Onteniete, Emmanuel Herault, Gaspard Koenig.

Jackie, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(569 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

The History Of The Cavern: 60th Anniversary Concert. The Overtures And Special Guests. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

The sign above the door proudly stated the commercial and the endearing truth, “It all started here”, one of the city’s music ambassadors, Ian Prowse, reflects in his song Does This Train Stop On Merseyside that a lay line runs down the very street the club is situated upon and to many, whether in the heyday of the Mersey Sound with bands such as The Beatles, Gerry and The Pacemakers and The Swinging Blue Jeans permanently filling out the venue or to modern day audiences who find themselves in a slightly different version of the brick built cellar but still immerse themselves in the music provided over the years by such bands and artists as The Fast Camels, Steve Hogarth, Fish, The Arctic Monkeys, Adele and Whisky Ginger Johnson; regardless of the era The Cavern is a musical shrine to the best and the beautiful who have and who still wish, to perform in Liverpool’s most iconic music venue.

The History Of The Cavern: 60th Anniversary Concert. The Overtures And Special Guests. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Manchester By The Sea, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Lucas Hedges, Kyle Chandler, Gretchen Mol, Kara Hayward, Heather Burns, Anna Katerina Baryschnikov, Tate Donovan, Matthew Broderick, C.J. Wilson, Heather Burns, Erica McDermott.

People, like places, can hold their secrets for as long as possible, the strange ways in which a village ticks can also manifest itself in the way that a person’s mind can become; closed off, unable to deal with a certain moment in the past to the point where it just no longer acknowledges the Time ever existed, till it becomes hearsay, rumour, dismissed gossip in the next generation coming through.

Manchester By The Sea, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

La La Land, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Emma Stone, Ryan Gosling, J.K. Simmons, John Legend, Amiée Conn, Terry Walters, Callie Hernandez, Jessica Rothe, Sonoya Mizuno, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jason Fuchs, Olivia Hamilton, Finn Wittrock, Josh Pence.

If you don’t understand the language then Jazz might leave you cold, the same could be said for musicals, the rituals, the spontaneity, the drama and the freedom, all are entwined in a system that may seem uncoordinated, clumsy to the naked ear, but let it flow over you, lose your inhibitions and don’t talk through it, don’t talk above it and it will grab your interest. It is in that freedom of expression that the two genres, Jazz and the American Musical come together to make something beautiful in La La Land.

La La Land, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Merry Hell, Gig Review. Philharmonic Music Rooms, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The bench mark so keenly set out by the month of January is normally set at a medium position, the year to come not wanting to have to work so hard to leap past records as if produced by the great Lyn Davies or Jonathan Edwards, the quick jump into the musical express never one to be truly expected as the audience and band alike always find themselves unravelling their web like bones from a season of warmth and inside festivities.

Merry Hell, Gig Review. Philharmonic Music Rooms, Liverpool. full post

(427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Jimmy Rae & The Moonshine Girls, Gig Review. Philharmonic Music Rooms, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is a crime to miss out on a filled room with like mind, appreciative people, a crime which is exonerated if the venue is sold out but not when things such as television, just things, unwarranted intrusions in to the life of going out and being social, of supporting musical talent in any form or guise; it is a misdeed, a felony to miss out on the man with the pencil neck tie and a smile as broad as the Mersey, Jimmy Rae and the Moonshine Girls.

Jimmy Rae & The Moonshine Girls, Gig Review. Philharmonic Music Rooms, Liverpool. full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

REO Speedwagon, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are many things that are remiss in this world, the fact that valiant AOR specialists REO Speedwagon have never made the journey to the heart of British music, the city that gave modern music to the masses, is surely one of them. Yet if the band were going to visit Liverpool for the first ever time then to be in the Echo Arena as the Christmas cheer bit down hard as the headliners played their last ever electric gig on British soil, then that was a present for many in the audience worth waiting for.

REO Speedwagon, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(383 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Passengers, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Michael Sheen, Laurence Fishburne, Julie Cerda.

The biblical tale of Adam and Eve, it may as well come from the future as the past, it might as well have the allusion to science fiction as to the workings of the Church and the Council of Trent, for in every realm of new civilisations that stride across the planet and hopefully one day in too the dark reaches of space, there is always a story of beginnings, of absolute starts.

Passengers, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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