Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Sometimes you just have to applaud the demeanour of a band that has just sweated copious amounts of sweat in the name of the cause. That sweat, almost pouring with the same majestic force as the water that tumbles over Niagara Falls after a torrent of rain has swelled the mighty beast to bursting point, comes ready packaged as part of Boston Manor’s short but high spirited and highly energetic set at the Fury Fest at the East Village Arts Centre.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
The rivalry between the two leading cities of the North-West doesn’t just limit itself to the battles that take place between the four combined sides battling it out for Premiership supremacy, it extends back through recent history in its struggle to been to seen as the second city of the country, the powerhouses of commerce and in its music.
The football is all well and good however, on recent form Manchester shades it, especially with the re-emergence of the only team to actually play their home games in Manchester, but the music and its dominance on the local cultural landscape; that surely has to be down as a thrashing handed out by the city that straddles the Mersey.
Oh, Pioneer at E.V.A.C. Liverpool. May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
When people criticise the young with the relentless enthusiasm associated with the post Victorian hangover that was so prevalent in the 1960s and ‘70s, the post war side effect of dogmatic unilateral hatred that was once rightly aimed at the forehead of Fascism but turned itself into its own parody by suggesting that all should be dealt with strict unfeeling indifference, that is the time in which to run for the hills and pray to whichever deity counts your musical soul as a personal possession that you never go so far down the route of being obnoxious, that even if it’s one thing only, you will find something to enjoy.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Matthias Schoenaerts, Michael Sheen, Tom Sturridge, Juno Temple, Tilly Vosburgh, Mark Wingett, Dorian Lough, Sam Phillips, Bradley Hall, Hilton McRae, Jessica Barden, Harry Peacock, Victor McGuire, Jody Halse, Pauline Whitaker, Belinda Low, Leonard Szepietowski, Jon Gunn, Andrew Price, Thomas Arnold, Richard Dixon.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Cast: Susan Cormack, Jane Dickens, Cath Rice, Danielle McLauren, Barbera Willis, Lucy Fiori, Elisa Cowley.
The Unity Theatre has a massive heart. It loves theatre, it loves its audiences and it loves Liverpool. This is evident in the eclectic and challenging work that fills its programme year upon year.
One such work is currently playing at the theatre, Tales from the Blue Room; a play from veteran playwright Pat Anderson and directed by former Liverpool Lunchtime Theatre director Paul Goetzee and which was originally presented as The Swan at the Liverpool Actor’s Studio
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10
Cast: Maisie Williams, Maxine Peake, Florence Pugh, Anna Burett, Greta Scacchi, Rose Caton, Lauren McCrostie, Katie Ann Knight, Evie Hooten, Monica Dolan, Mathew Baynton, Morfydd Clark, Joe Cole.
The Falling is full of style, intrigue; a cast dominated by wonderful actresses and full of potential and yet, despite all this, leaves the cinema goer feeling flatter than an uncooked pancake sitting in a café, untouched, alone and as indigestible as a school meal in the 1970s.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Pauline Daniels, Suzanne Collins, Andy Ford, Lynn Francis, Emma Lisi.
Comfort food, it’s there to get us through hardship and pain, the long cold lonely nights when perhaps our will is at its lowest, when the thought of a small sausage roll or chocolate cream cake in front of the fire is preferable to a bit of hot crumpet, or bag of sweets; for some though the taste of Gateaux is worth waiting for.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There really is nothing like being at a gig, no other experience comes close; not even a hot date with your dream partner captures the humid, extra special occasion that music in the raw can bring to the mind.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Perhaps the most poignant sentence was uttered towards the end of the nine day showcase of music at L.I.P.A.s Paul McCartney Auditorium as Oscar Vladau-Husevold, vocalist for Norwegian rockers Cloud, said with a the forming of a tear in his eye, the immortal word “Goodbye”.
This was not the way perhaps many of the artists leaving L.I.P.A. would choose to introduce the last song of their set, but it was arguably the most heartbreaking and yet profound moments in the days that have seen some of the most superb of artists to have graced the stage and some of the best music available to watch.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Hype can be a tool in which certain yardsticks are set out to inevitably fail. Hype may gather interest, it may circulate a powerful emotion but the problem with hype is that it soon rusts; it fades into corporate fantasy and the sloth like figure of doomed expectancy. Hype is on the same level as hysteria, it rages and roars but then whimpers like a mouse caught choosing between three different slabs of meagre cheese.