Category Archives: Interviews

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Ragz Nordset.

Ragnhild Øhren Nordset sits down with the comfortable ease of a woman whose life has been allowed to breathe, to take stock of time between leaving her family home in Hokksund, Norway and finding for the second time that Liverpool is just as important to her as what she may have ever had. Ragz, her professional music name but also a term of wonderful endearment, smiles and a passionate light comes from her Norwegian eyes that I will come to see throughout the whole interview and beyond is fiercely proud but also humble when asked about the music she performs.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Ragz Nordset. full post

(1495 words, estimated 5:59 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Pauline Black Of The Selecter.

Every generation gets the music they deserve. As with politicians, it can be a blessing or a curse visited upon those growing up between the time of leaving junior school and the post teenage years and finding music either a godsend or hindrance to their lives. For those who just avoided the golden period of Progressive Rock and were not bothered with the happy go lucky feel of a three minute song that really didn’t have a message there was always Punk and Ska and one of the leading lights of the latter has to be the gracious lead vocalist of Ska favourites The Selecter, Pauline Black.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Pauline Black Of The Selecter. full post

(1309 words, estimated 5:14 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound and Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Jason Rebello.

Celebrated Jazz pianist Jason Rebello is one of those rare individuals in music to have worked with some of the out and out greats of his chosen genre but also with the likes of Sting and Peter Gabriel. A musician of great stature he first came to prominence at a young age and by the time 1990 came around he had recorded his first album, A Clearer View which was produced by Weather Report’s Wayne Shorter.

Liverpool Sound and Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Jason Rebello. full post

(1437 words, estimated 5:45 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Danny Partington.

Liverpool University Drama Society’s long association with putting on diverse and interesting plays continues this autumn with their production of Pool (No Water). Pool (No Water) is a painful, visceral insight into the issues of self-loathing, artistic integrity and bitter jealousy amongst friends and artists, known solely and collectively as “The Group”.   

Reunited at the funeral of a mutual friend, a famous artist invites her old friends and colleagues out to her luxurious new home, complete with private pool and for one night only, The Group is back together. However, celebrations come to an abrupt end when the host suffers a horrific accident.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Danny Partington. full post

(1701 words, estimated 6:48 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Alan Hewitt, (Part Two)

Alan Hewitt leans back on the chair in FACT and smiles, a man wistful with memories of gigs and stories which culminated in his book on Steve Hackett, the Genesis guitarist who has carved out perhaps the most productive solo career of all those that made Genesis one of the finest Progressive Rock bands to hail from the U.K. being enjoyed rightly by the multitude. Sketches of Hackett is a book of immense value and warmth and just chatting to him, time seems to lose its meaning as the 20 minute time limit we set ourselves becomes muddled and extended until we have broached the subject of almost every Steve Hackett solo album and his contribution to the richness of the second and third period of the Genesis era.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Alan Hewitt, (Part Two) full post

(1914 words, estimated 7:39 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Steve Hackett’s Biographer Alan Hewitt (Part One)

Alan Hewitt leans back on the chair in FACT and smiles, a man wistful with memories of gigs and stories which culminated in his book on Steve Hackett, the Genesis guitarist who has carved out perhaps the most productive solo career of all those that made Genesis one of the finest Progressive Rock bands to hail from the U.K. being enjoyed rightly by the multitude. Sketches of Hackett is a book of immense value and warmth and just chatting to him, time seems to lose its meaning as the 20 minute time limit we set ourselves becomes muddled and extended until we have broached the subject of almost every Steve Hackett solo album and his contribution to the richness of the second and third period of the Genesis era.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Steve Hackett’s Biographer Alan Hewitt (Part One) full post

(1486 words, estimated 5:57 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)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Richie Grice.

Richie Grice cuts a commanding but ultimately loveable figure as he sits before you. His love of comedy radiates outwards from the very time you meet him and he certainly knows his stuff and his ready laugh is easy and a joyous thing to hear whenever you mention something that tickles his own funny bone.

With rehearsals well under way for Bon Voyage at The Epstein Theatre, which stars the superb Lindzi Germain and the legendary Mickey Finn, I was able to catch ten precious minutes with the man who co-wrote the play with Paul Nicholson at The Garden at FACT and ask him his thoughts on the play and on comedy.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Richie Grice. full post

(1028 words, estimated 4:07 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Jo Bywater.

Yorkshire born, Liverpool based singer songwriter Jo Bywater is one of those individuals in life that, no matter how many times you meet her, interview her or just share a moment talking about poetry, music and films, she just illuminates the room with the kind of unexpected passion reserved for those that have released a dozen albums or even give non-stop interviews to the awaiting public. There is more to this young woman though than just being intuitive and having the remarkable skill of having many layers within her lyric writing, there is a gentleness that belies the tough Yorkshire shell.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Jo Bywater. full post

(1408 words, estimated 5:38 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Natalie McCool.

In one of the hottest and keenly contested categories in this year’s Liverpool Music Awards, Natalie McCool, Anna Corcoran and Eva Peterson are all strong contenders for Female Artist of the Year 2013. Ms. McCool has had a phenomenal year with the release of her debut album and several high profile gigs in which she has wowed audience members and critics alike.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Natalie McCool. full post

(930 words, estimated 3:43 mins reading time)