Tag Archives: Liverpool

Jersey Boys, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tim Driesen, Sam Ferriday, Lewis Griffiths, Stephen Webb, Amelia Adams-Pearce, Charlie Allen, Damien Buhagiar, Henry Davis, Leanne Garretty, Matt Gillett, Dayle Hodge, Sean Kingsley, Dan Krikler, Sinead Long, Nathaniel Morrison, Luke Morton, Dominic Smith.

Truth is always stranger than fiction, especially it seems when it comes out of the state of New Jersey. From the shores of Cape May, through to the boulevards and gambling houses of Atlantic City to the alter ego and sometimes expensive reminder of American life in Newark. Truth is what keeps you out of harm’s way, talent, talent gets you noticed and when you have the ability to combine both truth and talent, that’s when you have a sure fire hit in Jersey Boys.

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

(532 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Mr. Holmes, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ian McKellen, Laura Linney, Milo Parker, Hattie Morahan, Patrick Kennedy, Frances de la Tour, Hiroyuki Sanada, Roger Allam, Philip Davis, Nicholas Rowe, Madeleine Worrall, Sarah Crowden, Takako Akashi, Zak Shukor, Michael Culkin, Sam Coulson, Frances Barber, John Sessions, Colin Starkey.

There is perhaps a question of whether age diminishes the achievements that have been made in youth or whether to be seen as fallible, to be seen as mortal actually enhances the great strides made when life was to be moulded, when Time was not feared and the weakness that must come to us all as frailty and memory forsake the owner.

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

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

Bonnie & Clyde, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Izzy Feld, Jak Malone, Charlotte Dowson, Adam Bennett, Julie Evans, Tom Lox, Kate Rugen, Philip Birss, Lorna Foley, Andrew Abrahamson, Steven Andrew, Andy Godden, Zoe Thirsk, Jo Vickers, Catherine O’Brien, Carrie Cushman, Andrew Jones, Jamie Barfield, Megan Key, Andy Walker, Sonia Chapman, Stephen Longmuir, Ruth Dalton.

Musicians: Maddie Stones, Jonas Tattersall, Alan Moore, Emily Grint, James Breckon, Lara Simpson, Matthew Cheung, Jack Taylor, Mike Ward, Paul Wilson, Gareth Dawson.

Bonnie & Clyde, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(532 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

London Road, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Olivia Coleman, Anita Dobson, Tom Hardy, Kate Fleetwood, Paul Thornley, Eloise Laurence, Philip Howard, Lynne Wilmot, Janet Henfrey, Calvin Demba, Nicola Sloane, Jenny Galloway, Gillian Bevan, Rosalie Craig, Alecky Blythe, Michael Shaeffer, Rae Baker, Paul Hilton, Nick Holder, Howard Ward, Linzi Hateley, Hal Fowler, Alexia Khadime, Meg Suddaby, Dean Nolan.

It won’t be the first film or musical to be made after a killing spree but London Road is perhaps arguably one of the first in which deals with how a community that had the viper in its nest, deals with the infamy attached to its soul once the murderer has been locked away from society.

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

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

Suzanne Vega, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Buildings retain their memories, or so the theory of some would have you believe, yet stretch the idea to a sporting venue or a music hall and somehow the presumption of ideas seeping into the walls and being held and aiding those following is not so daft.

Memory is after all what makes lyrics come alive, what makes a song tick with the resonance of a heartbeat and the story behind those combinations seem fruitful and soul affirming. For New York raised Suzanne Vega, memory is what makes her own stories come alive, that dip into a musician’s soul which captures elements of life and which gives meaning to others as they go through their own quiet path of life.

Suzanne Vega, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Ben Montague, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It’s not the first time that Liverpool has given musical shelter to Ben Montague in his short but very obviously interesting and successful career so far but it will arguably go down as the performance in which he was more relaxed and at ease with himself and full of self deprecating humour than any other. It was a sight and aural sensation in which those who made their way to the Philharmonic Hall early enough ahead of Suzanne Vega’s first visit to Liverpool in eight years took very much to their hearts.

Ben Montague, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Elvis Costello, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Elvis Costello at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. June 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The standing ovation that lasted longer than any political leaders conference speech resonated past the doors and onto the surrounding pavements of Hope, Hardman and Leece Street and continued as Elvis Costello’s audience drained of strength but not of will and faith and heartened by resolution and revolution, made their way out of the Philharmonic Hall and began to reflect on what had transpired in the course of over two outstanding hours of music.

Elvis Costello, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(512 words, 1 image, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

The Look Of Silence, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It may come as a surprise to many who watch Joshua Oppenheimer’s latest documentary about the systematic murder of a million Indonesians in the 1960s that it is a genocide in history to which the vast majority of people may have no idea happened. Unlike the actions that led to the Khmer Rouge, the barbarity of events that saw six million people exterminated in the death camps of Europe or the slow destruction of the ethnic American people by the United States Government, the act of murder of a people based on ideology has never really entered the minds of those encumbered and immersed into a world with no Cold War to focus their minds.

The Look Of Silence, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Steve Thompson And The Incidents, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Steve Thompson at the 02 Academy in Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are bands performing in Liverpool that to be brutally frank, you would climb off your sick bed to go and watch, or at least make sure the venue would let you take in a bed, a team of nurses and a glowering doctor, full of self-importance and unhappiness, as part of the ticket price. For Steve Thompson and the Incidents, sick bed or not, the chance to take in the sincerity and prized affection for the music on offer is perhaps enough to tempt even Lazarus out of retirement and have him storming the barricades, the arm pumped in appreciation and singing each well delivered line as though his very life depended upon it.

Steve Thompson And The Incidents, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(459 words, 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Last Line Out, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Summer evenings can be a time of quiet introspection surrounded by friends. Amongst the jokes, hilarity and loud musings between acquaintances, mates and lovers, the calm of summer’s heat can get in your head and considerations and plans are laid out in a row of certainty. You could do that, you could sit there as the sun finally burns itself out and the crispy smell of human bacon stirs into enough life to meander lazily home, or you could make your way to a gig given by Last Line Out and really enjoy the evening.

Last Line Out, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(375 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)