Tag Archives: Liverpool

Monty Python’ Spamalot, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jamie Tyler, Sarah Earnshaw, Joe Tracini, Will Hawsworth, Richard Kent, Richard Meek, Josh Wilmott, Michael Palin, Daniel Crane, Abigail Climer, Matthew Dale, Holly Eaterbrook, Richard Astbury, Ste Clough, Inez Mackenzie.

It’s no wonder that the chroniclers of Middle and Old English History have very little to go on, save the odd Anglo Saxon lord and a few scattered bones of cows that have been forcibly flown through the air and the legends of dire and almost indestructible rabbits who would tear a man’s head off given half a chance. Nothing of note seems to have happened until King Arthur and his loyal, if utterly bewildered, Knights of the Round Table went in search of the Holy Grail and under strict instructions by Michael Palin, as played by God.

Monty Python’ Spamalot, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Eddi Reader, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There is impressive and then there is confident, to have both relative strangers on stage at the same time is a rare commodity in which to draw breath, exhale deeply at the thought and then just let your heart go with it. For the confident and the impressive will always take the breath away, you may as well surrender fully and let the air escape your lungs voluntarily than let the preposterous and beige tell you that what you are seeing on stage is nothing, for those twin shades of humanity know nothing.

Eddi Reader, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

The Alan Kelly Gang, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The pleasure in life is almost uncontainable when you come across a support act to a superstar who are not just un-bloodied and unbowed by being on the same bill, they are treated by that main act as equals, soldiers and comrades on the front line together, locked arm in arm and heading with strange insurmountable vigour towards the same goal.

For The Alan Kelly Gang, that sense of equality, of musical parity is one that is taken with great joy and sense of obligation to deliver a set of music that is beyond reproach and keenly felt all the way through their set.

The Alan Kelly Gang, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(388 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

The Bacchae, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Daniel Fitzgerald, Nina Levy, Elliot Reeves, Aaron Kehoe, Kathryn McGurk, Nadia Amin Mohammed Noor, Natalie Bedkowska, Rachel Barry, Hannah McGowan, Imogen Allen, Katherine Collins, Tommy Williams, Nick Crosby, James O’ Neil, Tom Harrington.

The past is there not to be mocked or derided but to teach, guide and inform the future of its possible folly. By denying the very basic right to exist, to doubt their heritage, is to conjure up their wrath and those that sit in their corner.

The Bacchae, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(498 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Jennifer Bea.

It takes two to truly make a conversation, to sit and chat without the meaning being lost and the understanding being stilted and diluted, watered down and the froth of life being spluttered upon and half drawn conclusions met.

Meeting up with Jennifer Bea ahead of her performance in the Jim Cartwright play Two, you cannot help but be struck by the fire that dances in the eyes, of the absolute determination to bring a character to life. Even if you have had the honour of knowing Ms. Bea for a while, that fire catches you out and you cannot help but be drawn to it, like a moth serenading a flame, you know that time is short but you revel upon every word.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Jennifer Bea. full post

(1444 words, estimated 5:47 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf, Michael Maertens, Imogen Kogge, Kirsten Block, Uwe Preuss, Eva Bay, Jeff Burrell, Megan Gay, Claudia Geisler-Bading, Daniela Holtz, Max Hopp, Nikola Kastner.

For many the thought of being able to start anew after the ravages of World War Two were enough to change their name and what they may have done during the dark days of brutal darkness that shrouded Europe, the tyranny, the domination and the suffering, either endured or administered. For many that survived the absolute horrors of the concentration camps and the sickening depravity that humanity can sink to in the death camp of Auschwitz, a change of name was not enough, some had to undergo surgery to wipe away the terrors visited upon their faces and their bodies at the hands of the Nazis, to rise if they could like a Phoenix from the ashes. .

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

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

U Decide: Our Main Story Tonight, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Nick Walker, Hannah Barker.

Who decides what is newsworthy? Who sets the agenda for what the British people see on their television sets and delivered by journalists sometimes more concerned with their own image than what gets reported upon? In the week of the 2015 British General Election, news can often get misrepresented, especially in a media that is driven more and more by the projected image.

U Decide: Our Main Story Tonight, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

U Decide: Keeping It P.C. (Politically Confused), Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Aimee Marnell, Chloe Nezianya, Jahney Dalrymple.

Politics is a confusing game at the best of times; it is almost as if the bigger the set of policies being delivered out, the more sound bites there are in which to wheel across the political spectrum, the more, in truth, they all start to sound the same. It is a policy that could be seen as if the so called political elite or the somehow opinionated savvy are all delivering the same message to the politically confused.

U Decide: Keeping It P.C. (Politically Confused), Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(398 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Black Diamond, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool.

Black Diamond, East Vilage Arts Centre, Liverpool. May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The one to watch in 2015 has delivered to the point of fanaticism, dispensed with the thought of possibility and served up the righteous at room temperature an allowed to boil well into the night. For Black Diamond this particular gig at the East Village Arts Centre was astonishing, a tour de force of explosive beauty coupled with the heat of derision and the portrayal of band who cannot surely be stopped.

Black Diamond, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool. full post

(465 words, 1 image, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Diamond Days, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool.

Diamond Days at E.V.A.C, Liverpool, May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A change of scene is all it takes to get the full bloodied effect of what a band is capable of saying. Not just capable, but with style and accomplished grace, with passion and drive and the sweet serenade of a smile majestically raised to the heavens. The change is so palpable that it really makes the listener fully endorse the group as just oozing awesome from out of their collective shell.

Diamond Days, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool. full post

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