Author Archives: admin

Manic Street Preachers, Rewind The Film. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Rage and anger are very frustrating animals, in some it becomes lost in a rant that is fuelled by jealousy and is unattractive to see portrayed or seen. In many though the anger grinds under the surface, its reflection on society growing until the bubble bursts and comes pouring out, not in a diatribe of mixed, sometimes reactionary anguish but in a form of social belief, quiet fury that is softly spoken and carrying perhaps the biggest sack of wrath. For fury and change never seems to be misplaced in the anger of a patient man.

Manic Street Preachers, Rewind The Film. Album Review. full post

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

London Grammar, If You Wait. Album Review.

Liverpool sound and vision Rating * * * *

Nottingham has changed in the last 30 years; some parts may be unrecognisable to those who first made their way to the city and outlying areas at the start of the 1980s in the hope of catching their favourite bands perform in some of the town’s more interesting venues and even more salubrious settings. The surface may have changed, even become more welcoming in some places as Nottingham realises it has a duty to the next generation of its young and not be the hotbed of tourism mania in which to grab the next pound from unsuspecting sightseers and day-trippers

London Grammar, If You Wait. Album Review. full post

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

Thomas Dolby, Gig Review. Union Chapel, London.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There are very few truly unique entities in the world today, everything in the end has it’s time and yet something comes along in which carries on the flame. Not so with the extremely talented, the musical proficiency and singularly matchless Thomas Dolby. Add into a night of inventiveness, the shadowy, almost gothic–like structure and feel of the Union Chapel in Islington and the exceptional film that accompanied the evening and it was quite possibly the finest and most creative night of 2013.

Thomas Dolby, Gig Review. Union Chapel, London. full post

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

The Duckworth Lewis Method, Gig Review. Rough Trade Records, Whitechapel, London.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are just some things you cannot pass up the opportunity of witnessing in life.  The chance, if you should support England’s cricket team, to see the Australians flounder in two…hopefully three home test Ashes series on the trot in England is surely one of those, perhaps even seeing Lancashire’s Jimmy Anderson overtake Sir Ian Botham’s huge and long standing wicket haul is another. However, when it comes to music, being able to see The Duckworth Lewis Method kick start a tour of their latest cricket themed album, Sticky Wickets, in the sweet confines of Rough Trade Records in Whitechapel as part of a launch for the third edition of The Night Watchman, is just as sweet and just as palpable…records, new music, cricket, Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh, there surely isn’t much else for the cricketing music fan to excited about.

The Duckworth Lewis Method, Gig Review. Rough Trade Records, Whitechapel, London. full post

(327 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

The Pride, Theatre Review. Trafalgar Studios, London.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Hayley Atwell, Harry Hadden-Paton, Mathew Horne, Al Weaver.

Occasionally a play grabs you by the hand and takes you to places that you never thought you would ever see performed on stage, such was the power of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s writing and the absolute conviction of Hayley Atwell, Harry Hadden-Paton, Mathew Horne and Al Weaver’s performances and the nature of the subject made The Pride compelling, forceful and required watching.

The Pride, Theatre Review. Trafalgar Studios, London. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Much Ado About Nothing, Theatre Review. The Old Vic, London.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: James Earl Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Elwyn, Leroy Osei-Bonsu, Beth Cooke, James Garnon, Danny Lee Wynter, Lloyd Everitt, Alan David, Trevor Laird, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Melody Grove, Penelope Beaumont, Peter Wright, Tim Barlow, Katherine Carlton.

 

There really is nothing quite like watching two of the most celebrated actors of their generation giving an audience an evening inside a theatre in which will be remembered for so long and for all the right reasons. When those two actors are the exquisite and commanding Vanessa Redgrave and one of the all-time greatest American actors in James Earl Jones and they are surrounded by a cast that just revelled in the performance, then The Old Vic was on to an absolute winner with their new stage production of Much Ado About Nothing.

Much Ado About Nothing, Theatre Review. The Old Vic, London. full post

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

Dreadzone, Escapades. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Twenty years after their first release, the band that the great John Peel championed with passion, Dreadzone have released their latest opus Escapades and the result is something that perhaps the great man would no doubt have raved about for many years to come.

Not only is the usual hybrid of Reggae and hard Folk fused with the electronic-dub very much in evidence throughout this articulate and thoughtful album but its charm lies with the appreciation of memory, of battles fought, wrongs righted and knowing still that the war is from over, there are still far too many injustices to take care of. Dreadzone capture the antagonism of the age superbly, the ever creeping anger at the way many have become marginalised just for being who they are whilst others revel in the misery caused.

Dreadzone, Escapades. Album Review. full post

(368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Patrick Maguire And Alan Anderson.

Patrick Maguire and Alan Anderson are part of the city’s thriving Liverpool Playwright community, a community that has had the illustrious likes of Fred Lawless (Nightmare On Lime Street, Little Scouse on the Prairie, Scouse Pacific, Hitchhikers Guide To Fazakerley), Karen Brown, Richie Grice, Donna Lesley Price,  Helen Kerr (Grin Theatre) and Mike Neary pass through its doors at one time or another.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Patrick Maguire And Alan Anderson. full post

(1441 words, estimated 5:46 mins reading time)

Muse, Absolution. 10th Anniversary Retrospective.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Arguably it could be said that Absolution, Muse’s third studio album, was the recording that announced the band onto the wider world and certainly from the moment Absolution was released they haven’t looked back.

Muse, Absolution. 10th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(1031 words, estimated 4:07 mins reading time)

Get Ready To Unleash The Devil In You At The Martini Lounge’s Halloween Spectacular.

Martini Lounge Burlesque and Variety Show will return to the Epstein Theatre this October for their annual Halloween spectacular, which is set to be their most sizzling show to date. The Martini Lounge invites you to a night of glitz, glamour and devilish delights with special performances from Millie Dollar, Missy Malone, Mat Ricardo, Fred Bear and Aurora Galore, Saturday 19th October is a night you won’t forget.

Get Ready To Unleash The Devil In You At The Martini Lounge’s Halloween Spectacular. full post

(505 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)