Tag Archives: Liverpool

The Flare Path, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Leon Ockenden, Olivia Hallinan, Philip Franks, Adam Best, James Cooney, Simon Darwen, Stephanie Jacob, Shvorne Marks, Siobhan O’ Kelly, William Reay, Holly Smith, Alastair Whatley.

The Second World War asked a lot of the men and women of Britain, of Germany and the greater population of the world, it asked of them for sacrifice, of more resilience than at any time and in many ways to be more selfish in the face of adversity; it is a selfishness of spirit, to not give in despite overwhelming odds and face the world with a smile. It is this selfishness, or at least a singular part of it, that sits at the heart of Terrance Rattigan’s World War Two drama The Flare Path.

The Flare Path, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Charlie Landsborough, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Charlie Landsborogh, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Charlie Landsborough, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is no doubting the appeal of Charlie Landsborough, a man of delicate persuasion, of faith in all things and to whom the guitar holds no fear; he is a man with a twinkle in his eye and a joke ready for his adoring audience in between each well thought out and evenly tempered song. Even when all is said and done he finds time to make the crowd, perhaps with one eye on the festive period ahead, perhaps with half a mind on finally getting dry after the deluge of the November day that hit the streets of Liverpool, feel welcome at his show perhaps arguably with more keenness of spirit that any other musician doing the rounds.

Charlie Landsborough, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Katy Alex, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

For those making their way to Studio 2 on Parr Street, dodging the fireworks, skilfully avoiding the booming tones of the November air and the threatening drizzle with the hopeful keen anticipation of Vanessa Murray’s E.P. launch, the thought of support would naturally cross their mind. For many the names Dominic Dunn and Shannen Bamford are as easily recognised and lauded as a good fish supper from The Lobster Pot or a night out down at The Cavern, for they have served their time in front of the audiences, yet for Katy Alex, sensuous, creative and poised, the name might not mean anything to many yet, but on the strength of this performance will no doubt be one to be considered with glowing terms.

Katy Alex, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(352 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Big Girl’s Blouse. Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Coventry is a foreign country, they did things differently there; especially in the 1970s and to a young boy who knew he was a fabulous woman in waiting.

As part of this year’s Homotopia at the Unity Theatre, Kate O’ Donnell took the full house through what it was like to grow up as transgender in the Midlands city in the 1970s and 80s, the derision supplied the all-male establishments and the intolerance shown by her father and the ever increasing phrase ushered from his lips of Big Girl’s Blouse.

Big Girl’s Blouse. Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Vanessa Murray, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Vanessa Murray, Studio2, Liverpool. November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time is such a precious commodity that to waste it, to allow the night to fall away into the arms of Morpheus without having seen something remarkable, something thrilling, something cool and loved without exception, could almost feel like a crime has taken place. To allow the night to just wander into obscurity, to fade away without falling in love, artistically or humanly seems a sad state of affairs to be in and in the words of the eternal prophet, something must be done; for it’s About Time.

Vanessa Murray, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(477 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Shannen Bamford, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Shannen Bamford at Studio 2, Liverpool. November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Shannen Bamford is nobody’s fool and the sweet reflections of life she offers wherever there is a microphone with the right properties to care for her haunting and sensual voice should be heeded with big smiles of enjoyment and truth of life thrust into any day.

Shannen Bamford, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(430 words, 1 image, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Dominic Dunn, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The solution that eludes some people is normally the one that sits patiently infront of them and stirs their passions without them realising. For many of a certain generation, those coming up behind them, those that should be entrusted with the flag, they see nothing new, nothing to get excited about, for in their minds they will only ever believe that their generation has the right to argue for a specific golden era to be heard, that anything that comes from the mouths of the young is either filled with X Factor wannabe celebratory or teenage angst that cannot be fathomed.

Dominic Dunn, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

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

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Mary O’Driscoll, Eileen O’Higgins, Emily Bett Rickards, Eve Macklin, Maeve McGrath, Jenn Murray, Aine Ni Mhuiri, Nora-Jane Noone, Jane Brennan, Jessica Pare, Ellen David, Paulino Nunes.

Nothing can truly prepare you for that moment when you walk through immigration at J.F.K. or when you step off the boat and look to the west to begin a new life, nothing prepares you for the home sickness, for the memory of the people you have left behind or for the realisation that no matter how far you travel, home is now only a plane journey away.

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

(559 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

The Wonderful World Of Dissocia, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre Studio, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Niamh McCarthy, Jamie Pye, Alice Corrigan, Elliott Davis, Harry Sargeant, Nathan Russel, Stuie Dagnell, James Bibby, Charlotte Larkin, Georgie Lomax-Ford, Poppy Hughes, Jonathon McGuirk, Isobel Davis, Isobel Balchin.

To want to escape the pressures of modern life is completely understandable, the way the world is at the best of times it’s hard to fit in, it’s demanding on the soul to try and keep up with the ever changing and fast, frenetic pace of it all and it’s no wonder that we are urged to find, to discover that happy place in which all our troubles can be forgotten for a while, in which making sense of our own identity is the main priority.

The Wonderful World Of Dissocia, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre Studio, Liverpool. full post

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

Polari, Poetry And Spoken Word Review. Homotopia, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The English language is as rich as anything on Earth and yet it is made so purely because it is allowed to breathe, to expand, to contract and usurp words from other cultures and to bring the art of communication into a realm that no other language can truly compete with. The ability to take one word and give it a completely different sense of occasion, to allow the sense of freedom to define the lingo, the dialect and the pattern of speech is to be celebrated and not given a stern look, not to be rallied against and see the language die in a stunted cul-de-sac.

Polari, Poetry And Spoken Word Review. Homotopia, Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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