Tag Archives: Liverpool

Straight Outta Compton, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: O’ Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, Marlon Yates Jr., R. Marcos Taylor, Carra Patterson, Alexandra Shipp, Paul Giamatti, Elena Goode, Keith Powers, Joshua Brockington, Sheldon A. Smith, Keith Stanfield, Cleavon McClendon.

Regardless of what you feel about Rap/Hip-Hop or any of the divisions contained therein, Straight Outta Compton is one of the most brutal, interesting and creative films of the year. A film which for which many might find uncomfortable viewing, some perhaps even painfully so, but it is the flesh that is opened up, the topics of discussion which have un-nerving parallels with American society today which makes it a must see film.

Straight Outta Compton, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Dreamboats And Miniskirts, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Alex Beaumont, Alan Howell, Elizabeth Carter, Laura Sillett, David Luke, Anna Campkin, Will Tierney, Michael Kantola, Sheridan Lloyd, Mike Slander, Daniel O’ Flanagan, Joseph Hardy, Josh Tye, Chloe Edwards-Wood.

The music world can be a cruel mistress, especially when you have had one hit record and the path is opened up before you as if the parting of the Red Sea has happened before your eyes and Moses is on the other side showing you this week’s sales and a mouthing over the crashing tumbling waves around you that Sir Paul McCartney has expressed an interest in doing a duet, with the fickle nature that comes in the form of a scratched record, dreams can be broken and dashed upon a cruel sea.

Dreamboats And Miniskirts, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(552 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

The Renaissance, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Manchester band The Renaissance undertook their debut Liverpool gig at Zanzibar and they made themselves right at home.

Having only played seven gigs together so far the four-piece band gave the open-staged night at one of Liverpool’s oldest and finest renowned Jazz bars their all. With a simple set-up of vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums and a playing-it-safe stage presence it was unbeknown to the comfortable and already previously swooned audience as what to expect.

The Renaissance, Gig Review. Zanzibar, Liverpool. full post

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

Gemma Bovery, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Fabrice Luchini, Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Isabelle Candelier, Niels Schneider, Mel Raido, Elsa Zylberstein, Pip Torrens, Kacey Mottet Klein, Edith Scob, Philippe Uchan, Pascale Arbillot, Marie-Bénédicte Roy, Christian Sinniger, Pierre Alloggia, Patrice Le Mehauté, Gaspard Beaucarne, Marianne Viville.

An obsession with books is not a bad thing, in fact it nearly always leads to enlightenment and knowledge; sometimes though it can lead to living the life of the modern day and the real as if you conducting a performance, especially when people you know exhibit all the signs of a classic book.

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

(414 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Amy Schumer, Bill Hader, Tilda Swinton, LeBron James, Daniel Radcliffe, Marissa Tomei, Vanessa Bayer, Brie Larson, Evan Brinkman, Mike Birbiglia, Norman Lloyd, Keith Robinson, Marina Franklin, John Cena, Randall Park, John Glaser, Colin Quinn, Dan Soder, Devin Fabry, Carla Oudin, Dave Attell, Ezra Miller, Matthew Broderick, Marv Albert, Chris Evert.

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

(448 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Fables: Witches. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The legend behind the Fables of The Farm and those displaced from both their natural worlds and Bullfinch Street in New York might end up relying upon the actions of two of the great witches that reside on the side of the greater community. For in Frau Totenkinder and the young but powerful Ozma, all the fighting for survival so far has been one in which their true selves have managed to keep out of the limelight, all that now is over and the real war begins.

Fables: Witches. Graphic Novel Review. full post

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

Dominic Dunn, Gig Review. Liverpool Loves Festival, Pier Head, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

As the light began to fade and the sun was musing on its daily retirement from the sight of the people of Liverpool, one young man stood aloft on the stage and proceeded to show exactly why it is important to give the youth of the city the chance to show why they must never be taken for granted. Why they should not be decried as members of society and why at all costs they must be nurtured and given the hope and strength they need to do the jobs that we as their elders have perhaps mislaid our own purpose in fulfilling.

Dominic Dunn, Gig Review. Liverpool Loves Festival, Pier Head, Liverpool. full post

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

Gary Edward Jones, Gig Review. Liverpool Loves Festival, Pier Head, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

The Mersey Side area arguably produces so many talented song writers and musicians that there is a thought that what would British music be like without the enormous and hardy input from its shores; perhaps not desolate for the music that comes out of Edinburgh, Birmingham, the Canterbury set and all places in between stand out as being cool and diverse but Liverpool surely gives it its heart.

Gary Edward Jones, Gig Review. Liverpool Loves Festival, Pier Head, Liverpool. full post

(473 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Roxanne de Bastion, Gig Review. Liverpool Loves Festival, Pier Head, Liverpool.

Roxanne de Bastion at the Liverpool Loves Festival 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The sun was on its waning path across the River Mersey as Roxanne de Bastion took to the Dovedale Social Stage. The journey to the city’s Liverpool Loves Festival may have been a fraught and arduous one, but it was one that led to Ms. Bastion being greeted like an old friend and one in which the day would ultimately revel in her way of musical story-telling, the fire in the Folk and the wonderful way in which to turn one particular song associated with one genre into the epitome of another.

Roxanne de Bastion, Gig Review. Liverpool Loves Festival, Pier Head, Liverpool. full post

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

Mersey Wylie, Gig Review. Liverpool Loves Festival, Pier Head, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Living up to, and going beyond the pressure is what separates the good and the enjoyable from the legends of the future. It cannot after all be easy to live up to the shadows that a much admired name bestows, neither can it be taken in the same vein when you have already produced one of the musical performances of the year so far.

Mersey Wylie, Gig Review. Liverpool Loves Festival, Pier Head, Liverpool. full post

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