Tag Archives: Southport

The Time Machine, Theatre Review. The Studio, Atkinson Theatre, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Stephen Cunningham.

It is all about Time, how we attempt to understand it, how it tempts, teases, and controls us, Time punishes the wary and the inquisitive alike, it finds ways to deceive us, to humble and humiliate us, get too close and it leaves scars, stay away from investigating it, from immersing yourself within its non-corporeal hold and it will tear you layer from layer, it will chew down on your soul and ravage you. Time is a beast, a friend, a lawyer, an advocate and one that must unravel slowly, the tick and the tock always reminding us that if we see into our own futures, that of our own species, the result could drive us mad.

The Time Machine, Theatre Review. The Studio, Atkinson Theatre, Southport. full post

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

Sherlock Holmes: The Sign Of Four, Theatre Review. Atkinson Theatre, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Luke Barton, Joseph Derrington, Stephanie Rutherford, Christopher Glover, Ru Hamilton, Zach Lee.

The parallels between our modern world and that of the dying days of the Victorian Era are not really so different for all the talk of enlightened sensibilities, of understanding the way we treat others and the hope of better interaction. Yet still the undercurrent of violence, of greed, and murder dominates our society with a stunning regularity, a world shrouded in fog, of questions, of a fractured system that sees half the country fearful of ‘the other’, of quick judgement and hanging on to a belief that we somehow have a right to deny another man or woman to believe they can be welcome in our country.

Sherlock Holmes: The Sign Of Four, Theatre Review. Atkinson Theatre, Southport. full post

(599 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Midge Ure, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are few finer voices than that of Midge Ure, especially when the vast majority of the evening spent in his company at the Atkinson in Southport is listening to an album that, arguably unfairly, was played against the workings of corporate turmoil and interference. There are times in life when you know that just want to hear the artist being lauded for them alone, not having an agenda pushed down their throat, it’s bad enough in the democracy of a band but when it comes against what is an especially beautiful solo album such as Breathe, that’s when you know the agenda has got rotten.

Midge Ure, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport. full post

(657 words, estimated 2:38 mins reading time)

Steeleye Span, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport.

Steeleye Span at The Atkinson, Southport. February 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The tag line of the manner of the band may not sit well in some quarters but for others they are the undisputed royalty and arguably pinnacle of the English Folk revival and as the packed out audience at the Atkinson Theatre in Southport came to the very end of the set, the appreciation and acknowledgement of Steeleye Span creativity and fine music was palpable and endearing

Steeleye Span, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport. full post

(529 words, 1 image, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Kiki Dee And Carmelo Luggeri. Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To get to The Atkinson Theatre’s Studio in Southport you have no choice but to pass paintings by various artists, all in the Victorian mode. They are worthy of taking a lingering pause by, they capture the imagination and make you think; they nurture a blossoming idea of what the ideal should be, they might not be the first paintings you think of but then what is until you behold it for the first time and it takes your breath away.

Kiki Dee And Carmelo Luggeri. Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport. full post

(607 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

Merseyside’s Finest Take To The Stage For One Night Only!

LHK Productions returns in 2014 with their amazing celebration of Merseyside talent, One Night Only. After successful shows at the Liverpool Empire in 2010 and Southport Theatre & Warrington Parr Halls in 2011 the show will be making its way, due to popular demand, to the Epstein Theatre and The Atkinson this autumn.

One Night Only is a feel good variety performance with some of your favourite Merseyside personalities as the stars of the show. This must see production includes show-stopping numbers from the world of musical theatre which has All That Jazz and enough Razzle Dazzle to leave you wanting more than one night only.

Merseyside’s Finest Take To The Stage For One Night Only! full post

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

Gilmore And Roberts, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Just watching Katriona Gilmore and Jamie Roberts on stage for a short while is enough to confirm what the whispers and folk murmurings have been about for the last couple of years. To witness it live though is a pleasure that in some old fashioned way might feel as if it was knocking too much upon the memory for example of the likes of Ralph McTell, the genius of the narrative story laid out for all to see is worthy of the some of the greats of British Folk.

Gilmore And Roberts, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport. full post

(415 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Rita Payne, Gig Review. Atkinson Theatre, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Rita Payne, a band name so good there just had to be two musicians in there to fill the space and neither of them are called Rita. For Rhiannon Scutt and Pete Sowerby the last two years has been a big curve and the music they perform is not only enticing but also fulsome in its delivery and as they tour with new Folk heroes Gilmore and Roberts, the excitement they generate in the stories and playing is enough to convince all who made their way to The Atkinson in Southport that they had witnessed something very special and utterly adorable.

Rita Payne, Gig Review. Atkinson Theatre, Southport. full post

(497 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Suggs, My Life in Words and Music, Review. The Atkinson, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To a generation and beyond Suggs is a man who has been with them probably throughout their entire lives. He and Madness are so entwined as part of the very fabric of the U.K’s glowing music history that to dismiss him would be reckless, even a crass thoughtless statement.

For all those that made their way to Southport’s Atkinson Theatre to listen to him relate, admittedly in a condensed form, moments of his lifetime from his best-selling autobiography in the two hour My Life in Words and Music, were left thrilled, amused, slightly stunned at the candour and the utter excitement of a man who has lived and been admired.

Suggs, My Life in Words and Music, Review. The Atkinson, Southport. full post

(541 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Emily Smith, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

No matter how good the venue, no matter how respectable the recording history of the artist, sometimes going out on the road with an album that has generated such good feeling towards it, can seem a little dull when heard live in comparison to the image that the listener has built up in their head.

Emily Smith, Gig Review. The Atkinson, Southport. full post

(434 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)