The Beatles - Paul McCartney - Jhon Lennon - RIngo Star - George Harrison

Liverpool Arts: Monologues at Brindley

2012-08-24T22:09:00.000-07:00

CENTENARY Theatre presents Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads at The Brindley in Runcorn from September 4-8.

The monologues include A Chip in the Sugar, A Lady of Letters, and A Cream Cracker Under the Settee.

Liverpool Arts: INTERVIEW: Bill Zygmant on photographing The Beatles, the Bee Gees and John Lennon and Yoko Ono and his Penny Lane Gallery exhibition

2012-08-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: Last Choir Standing finalists reunite

2012-08-24T20:28:00.000-07:00

THE finalists of BBC’s Last Choir Standing are reuniting this autumn for a pair of concerts.

Liverpool’s Sense of Sound will be joined by Wales’ Ysgol Glanaethwy to perform pieces both together and separately.

The first event takes place at Liverpool Cathedral on November 3, with a repeat at Venue Cymru, in Llandudno, on November 24.

Ysgol Glanaethwy are regular winners at the Music Youth Festival , where they have received seven Outstanding Performance awards, as well as attending festivals all over the globe in countries including Switzerland and China.

They recently won the youth category in Budapest’s Musica Mundi Festival and have been named ambassadors of the Llangollen Festival.

Musical director Cefin Roberts says: “Sense of Sound made such an impact on the members of our youth choir on Last Choir Standing.

“Today we have a completely new ensemble of singers and I know that these new members will have the same joy of listening and working with such a diverse and amazing choir.

“We are also excited that we will be singing a few songs with Sense of Sound in the concerts, and hope that this will create a new synergy of sound and music making.”

Liverpool-based Sense of Sound are one of the UK’s most successful contemporary choirs, and have collaborated with many major artists including Brian Eno, Imogen Heap, Damon Albarn and Paco Pena.

Musical director Jennifer John says: “Whenever I hear Ysgol Glanaethwy sing, my heart opens a little more.”

Liverpool Arts: DANCE MUSIC: Fatboy Slim’s big party comes to Liverpool

2012-08-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

HE helped close the Olympic Games and DJ Fatboy Slim is bringing his Big Beach Boutique to Liverpool at the end of this month.

Well, sort of: August 31 will see selected cinemas screen Live From The Big Beach Boutique and FACT is one of them.

A long-time tradition in Brighton, this year’s two-day event took place in June at the Amex football stadium in the seaside town, home to Fatboy Slim’s beloved Brighton and Hove Albion FC.

It saw the likes of Carl Cox, Luciano, 2 Bears and Maya Jane Coles playing to more than 40,000 fans.

Cinemas will be decorated with Fatboy Slim’s signature smiley face and cross bones visuals, while fans will be greeted by a pre-show mix tape specially compiled by Norman.

The Liverpool screening starts at 9pm.

Liverpool Arts: It’s a Bible for any band, it’s a warning for those not yet in a band, and an utter miracle that Mötley Crüe are not only alive, but still selling out arenas.

2012-08-24T19:50:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: CULTURE: Derry-Londonderry City of Culture 2013 learns lessons from Liverpool

2012-08-24T19:36:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: DANCE MUSIC: Fatboy Slim’s big party comes to Liverpool

2012-08-24T18:37:00.000-07:00

HE helped close the Olympic Games and DJ Fatboy Slim is bringing his Big Beach Boutique to Liverpool at the end of this month.

Well, sort of: August 31 will see selected cinemas screen Live From The Big Beach Boutique and FACT is one of them.

A long-time tradition in Brighton, this year’s two-day event took place in June at the Amex football stadium in the seaside town, home to Fatboy Slim’s beloved Brighton and Hove Albion FC.

It saw the likes of Carl Cox, Luciano, 2 Bears and Maya Jane Coles playing to more than 40,000 fans.

Cinemas will be decorated with Fatboy Slim’s signature smiley face and cross bones visuals, while fans will be greeted by a pre-show mix tape specially compiled by Norman.

The Liverpool screening starts at 9pm.

Liverpool Arts: Coughlan back for city’s Irish festival

2012-08-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

THROUGHOUT her 25-year career, Mary Coughlan has drawn heavily from her heroes – Billie Holiday’s grievous, teary outpourings, the husky flirtations of Peggy Lee, Van Morrison’s soulful wails, the defiant chanteuserie of Edith Piaf.

Her smoky, bluesy, boozy drawl has always been a seduction, no matter what the subject. The vocal marrying of sardonic wit, visceral rage and the tenderest of sorrowful regrets means that every song is her own.

She’s returning to Liverpool to play Liverpool Philharmonic’s music residency at St George’s Hall as part of the Liverpool Irish Festival.

“I love playing Liverpool,” she says.

“The first time I played, the local promoter took us on the ferry down the Mersey and we did the entire Beatles trail. We had a great time.

“I think my most memorable gig in Liverpool was in The Philharmonic. I met a woman after my gig there and we talked about The Magdalene Laundry. Maybe she will read this and get in touch.”

This year’s Liverpool Irish festival will run over 10 days and two weekends, rather than three as in previous years.

With pretty much the same number of events the festival will be busier, particularly on weekends, with a choice of more events for festival-goers to attend.

As always, music will be at the heart of the festival, with the third year of the splendid Irish Sea Sessions at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

There will also be music at The Capstone, Rodewald Suite, Sefton Park Palm House and Eric’s.

MARY COUGHLAN plays St George’s Hall on October 18.

Liverpool Arts: Monologues at Brindley

2012-08-24T17:42:00.000-07:00

CENTENARY Theatre presents Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads at The Brindley in Runcorn from September 4-8.

The monologues include A Chip in the Sugar, A Lady of Letters, and A Cream Cracker Under the Settee.

Liverpool Arts: LAURA DAVIS: Culture gives our cities an identity in the face of globalisation

2012-08-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: Spector – Enjoy It While It Lasts

2012-08-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

SPECTOR'S debut album Enjoy It While It Lasts will take the east London quintet (Christopher Burman, Fred Macpherson, Thomas Shickle, Jed Cullen and Danny Blandy) beyond comparisons to The Strokes, The Killers and Kaiser Chiefs. There are clearly nods to their indie peers, with pompous choruses and geek-chic attire, but unexpected touches, more reminiscent of seventies glam-rockers Roxy Music and eighties' New Romantic acts, help the hotly tipped band break the mould. First single Never Fade Away sets the tone with its sharp synths, playful percussive clapping and Macpherson's broad delivery.

Tracks such as Chevy Thunder and Celestine introduce a Bruce Springsteen machismo to the record. With songs like these, Spector should see themselves climbing up festival line-ups in the year ahead.

Rating: HHH

Arcane Roots – Left Fire

ARCANE Roots first sparked interest with a reinvented, modernised cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit after being asked to feature on Kerrang! Magazine's Nevermind Forever covers album while unsigned. Andrew Groves, Adam Burton and Daryl Atkins' progressive approach to the Nirvana classic is an insight into the experimental ability of the up-and-coming band.

The Surrey-based trio uniquely blend several genres into one, proving to be a sensational combination of rock, pop and metal, with harmonising vocals and intense guitar riffs that are immensely heightened in their live performances. You Are, Rouen and In This Town Of Such Weather are stand-out tracks.

Rating: HHHH

Of Monsters And Men – My Head Is An Animal

HAILING from the bastion of artistic endeavour that is Iceland, Of Monsters And Men are the new indie darlings, gathering momentum and garnering global acclaim with their debut album. My Head Is An Animal is a cheery-sounding collection, with catchy singles such as Dirty Paws and Little Talks. Despite comparisons to US band Anathallo and London group Fanfarlo, the raw talent from the six-piece – members include Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir, Ragnar Thorhallsson, Brynjar Leifsson, Arnar Rosenkranz Hilmarsson, Arni Gudjonsson and Kristjan Pall Kristjansson – for infectious, organic songwriting is clear. They just need to be given the time to develop and find their niche.

Rating: HHH

Roxy Music – The Complete Studio Recordings 1972-1982

FRONTED by Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music are one of the finest bands this country has produced, beginning as a blistering art-rock combo with a taste for the avant-garde, thanks to the presence of synthesiser Brian Eno.

Their back catalogue is to be admired greatly, with only the odd exception here and there. But there is nothing this package contains that could convince Roxy Music die-hards to part with their money again. The two discs of singles and B-sides are padded out to the extreme – many tracks are duplicated with only minor differences and the remastering of each studio album adds little to the original mixes. This re-release doesn't get the effort it so rightly deserves, but is a must-have for any loyal collectors.

Rating: HHHHH

Liverpool Arts: CULTURE: Derry-Londonderry City of Culture 2013 learns lessons from Liverpool

2012-08-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: CLASSICAL: Tasmin’s delight at Delius and the RLPO

2012-08-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

TO SAY Tasmin Little is having a busy 2012 is something of an understatement. The last month alone has seen her in the US, Wales, London (in the Wallace and Gromit Prom) and a fortnight in Australia.

Tonight she will play her second Prom of the season – this time alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

“It’s been the most fun,” she says with a laugh.

“I never like to complain and say I’ve been so busy, because everything I do I take on myself and I agree to do it. And everything has been lovely.”

Next Thursday’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall reunites the 47-year-old with the Liverpool Philharmonic, with whom she has been a regular performer during her three-decade career. And secondly, she’s playing Delius, the composer she’s championed since she started performing professionally in the 1980s.

It’s the 150th anniversary of Delius’s birth, and playing his violin concerto at the Proms is a first for Little.

The concert will be broadcast on Radio 3. But Liverpool audiences will get to hear it played again live at a concert at the Philharmonic Hall in November.

Meanwhile the Phil’s 2012 Prom also includes a London premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ 9th Symphony, and Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony. It will be the first time Little has worked with conductor Vasily Petrenko.

THE Liverpool Philharmonic plays at the BBC Proms on August 23. Tasmin Little will also appears with the orchestra at the Philharmonic Hall on November 17.

Liverpool Life: Emma Johnson: I’m all set for the return of Linda Gray and Dallas returns to our television screens

2012-08-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: Galleries debut for comedy theatre

2012-08-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

NEW theatre company Class Act Theatre is taking its first production into art galleries as part of the Mathew Street Festival.

Founded by West Derby-based actor John Busow, the company is launching with free performances in four different venues.

Eleanor Where Are You? is a comedy set in Liverpool, where some one has stolen Tommy Steele’s Eleanor Rigby statue, which sits on Stanley Street.

Busow says: “I thought, wouldn’t it be great to start a company and get actors I’ve worked with over the years, and some great writers and directors I know to come on board and make it a sort of super hub?

“Sometimes it feels hard to get stuff seen in Liverpool if it’s not about football or gangsters, or really wacky.”

ELEANOR Where Are You? is performed at the View Two Gallery in Mathew Street on August 22, Studio 2 in Parr Street on August 23, Penny Lane Gallery in Allerton on August 24 and The Brink in Parr Street on August 25.

Liverpool Arts: OPERA: Celebration of Gilbert and Sullivan at the Floral Pavilion

2012-08-24T12:59:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: Galleries debut for comedy theatre

2012-08-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

NEW theatre company Class Act Theatre is taking its first production into art galleries as part of the Mathew Street Festival.

Founded by West Derby-based actor John Busow, the company is launching with free performances in four different venues.

Eleanor Where Are You? is a comedy set in Liverpool, where some one has stolen Tommy Steele’s Eleanor Rigby statue, which sits on Stanley Street.

“Sometimes it feels hard to get stuff seen in Liverpool if it’s not about football or gangsters, or really wacky.”

Liverpool Arts: Noel Gallagher rolls back the years ahead of Echo Arena date

2012-08-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: INTERVIEW: Spanish tenor Jose Carreras ahead of his duet with Katherine Jenkins at Preston Proms in the Park

2012-08-24T11:25:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: BOOKS: Strong line-up for literature festival

2012-08-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

POET Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and Charles Dickens’s great-great-grandson are appearing at Frodsham’s first literature festival.

Duffy, a University of Liverpool graduate, will be speaking at Frodsham Community Centre on September 5, while Gerald Dickens will be performing a dramatised version of A Christmas Carol at the Heathercliffe Hotel on September 2.

Festival patron Tim Firth, the Warrington-born writer of Calendar Girls and new film The Wedding Video, is running an afternoon writing workshop for young people aged eight to 12 on September 9.

Tickets have already sold out for some events at the festival, Weaver Words, which runs from August 29 to September 9.

Festival manager Lynn Pegler says: “The response to Frodsham’s first literature festival has been amazing.

“Already two events are sold out and there are very few tickets left for the Poet Laureate.

“Lots of community organisations and schools have got involved and will be running their own events alongside the festival. The support from everyone in the town has been fantastic.”

Also appearing will be Dr Who writer Eddie Robson, who will launch a science fiction-themed weekend on Saturday September 1.

Comic book creator Tim Quinn, who has worked as scriptwriter, editor on everything from Beryl the Peril and Korky the Cat to Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, will take his audience through 150 years of comic strips in a talk on August 31.

FURTHER details at www.weaverwords. org.uk

Liverpool Arts: Spector – Enjoy It While It Lasts

2012-08-24T10:21:00.000-07:00

Tracks such as Chevy Thunder and Celestine introduce a Bruce Springsteen machismo to the record. With songs like these, Spector should see themselves climbing up festival line-ups in the year ahead.

Rating: HHH

Arcane Roots – Left Fire

Rating: HHHH

Of Monsters And Men – My Head Is An Animal

Rating: HHH

Roxy Music – The Complete Studio Recordings 1972-1982

Rating: HHHHH

Liverpool Arts: Spector – Enjoy It While It Lasts

2012-08-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

Tracks such as Chevy Thunder and Celestine introduce a Bruce Springsteen machismo to the record. With songs like these, Spector should see themselves climbing up festival line-ups in the year ahead.

Rating: HHH

Arcane Roots – Left Fire

Rating: HHHH

Of Monsters And Men – My Head Is An Animal

Rating: HHH

Roxy Music – The Complete Studio Recordings 1972-1982

Rating: HHHHH

Liverpool Arts: BANK HOLIDAY GUIDE: Mathew Street festival and other events on this weekend

2012-08-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

Liverpool Arts: Having the time of her life

2012-08-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

TACKLING difficult issues like sexual abuse, assisted suicide, school shootings and organ donation, Jodi Picoult’s stories don’t often end with a “happily ever after”.

So, in writing a fairytale for young adults with her 16-year-old daughter, Samantha Van Leer, has Britain’s biggest-selling female adult fiction author gone soft?

Apparently not. This is not your run-of-the-mill story, as it involves a fairytale prince called Oliver trying to escape the pages of a book and making contact with Delilah, a 15-year-old loner who is shunned by most of her classmates and has become obsessed with the book in which the prince appears.

It’s a far cry from the young adult fiction world of vampires and werewolves which has taken off in recent years thanks to the Twilight series.

But Jodi and Sammy are aiming for a slightly younger target audience, from age eight upwards.

Jodi credits her daughter with the idea, although Jodi’s name is in bigger print on the front cover. And Sammy is aware that some might accuse her of nepotism.

“I know that her name has definitely helped me in this,” she admits. “She has definitely given me a leg-up in the process. She already had an agent so we didn’t need to find me one. But I know that we wrote this book together, so I’m not worried.”

Indeed, Sammy thought of the idea when she was daydreaming in a French class three years ago. She phoned her mother, who was on a book tour in Los Angeles, and the collaboration resulted in two years of weekends, school holidays and evenings spent side by side at Jodi’s computer, crafting the story.

“We took turns typing and literally spoke every sentence out loud,” Jodi recalls. “I learned that if you think it’s hard to get your daughter to clean her room, it’s even harder to get her to stay focused on finishing a chapter when it’s nice outside.”

But they didn’t have many creative differences while they worked on the novel together.

“We argued, politely, about the simple stuff, like whether Oliver should have black hair or blond hair – and I won that argument,” says Jodi.

“Sammy wanted the fairytale sections to be dark and creepy and gothic, but I wanted them to be light-hearted and sort of Shrek-like. She said absolutely not.

“I thought, ’I’ll let her write it that way, then I’ll fix it’, but she was right and we did it her way.”

Jodi’s job wasn’t made any easier considering she was writing another book at the same time – on the Holocaust.

“It was a real challenge because the adult book I was writing at the same time was very dark and depressing, so to have to shift between that and Between The Lines was like whiplash.”

Writing together has brought the pair closer and has given Sammy a greater understanding of what her mother does for a living.

“I always watched her just go up into her office and, eight hours later, come back down. I never really knew what she was doing. And after living through it I know just how hard she works,” Sammy reflects.

Jodi, 46, a jovial mother-of-three from New Hampshire, goes into a different, darker world from her happily-married, affluent “schoolmom” life when she writes her adult novels. Her office overlooks Moose Mountain at the large colonial-style family home, set in 11 acres.

Sammy recalls the hours her mother would spend up in that office when she was younger, but she didn’t begrudge the time she spent working.

“I let her do her thing, I just never really knew quite what she did. I guess I always saw the glamorous side of her life. On her book tours all I saw were her fans and the big events and the dinners. I never saw how much she was working, all the plane rides.”

She was, however, aware that her mother was famous. “It was a little bit weird when we’d be on a family vacation and someone would come up and ask to take a picture. But to me she’s just a normal mum that cooks dinner and tells me to clean my room.”

Jodi, who won the Richard & Judy Best Book award in 2005 for her novel, My Sister’s Keeper, had a blissfully normal childhood herself. She was born on Long Island, New York. Her mother was a nursery school teacher while her father worked on Wall Street.

After studying English and creative writing at Princeton University, she had a succession of jobs – in finance, editing textbooks, teaching and writing advertising copy – while writing in her spare time.

She married her college sweetheart, Tim Van Leer, an antiques dealer, and gave up work to look after their three children when they were small. But when her husband came home she’d hand them over to him and escape to write.

She received hundreds of rejections, finally finding an agent, but her books were a slow burn, receiving attention by word of mouth rather than advertising. It wasn’t until her fifth or sixth book that she became noticed in America and it was with My Sister’s Keeper that she found fame in Britain.

So could this be the start of an illustrious writing career for Sammy?

“I heard my mum say earlier that the next thing I’m going to write will be my college application,” she laughs.

“But we have talked about a sequel to this.” Sammy will be the last of the children to leave home for college, but Jodi says she’s not worried about empty nest syndrome.

“I don’t worry about it as much as my husband does. I like to think there’s an opportunity there to spend a lot of time travelling and for him to come on tour with me, which he hasn’t been able to do because he’s been with the kids. I think it’s going to be a new adventure. Plus we’ll stalk her at college!”

BETWEEN The Lines by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer is published by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £12.99. Available now

Liverpool Arts: Preview

2012-08-24T08:38:00.000-07:00

North Wales International Music Festival

THE newly-promoted City of St Asaph, once again plays host to the North Wales Music Festival, which runs for eight days from September 22. It takes place in the cathedral, a few yards off the A55 and is an easy run from Merseyside on a summer’s evening.

It was founded by the composer William Mathias, who died 20 years ago, and concert-goers pass his grave on entering the cathedral. As usual there are starry names, including cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, The King’s Singers and the Chilingirian Quartet, who play Mozart, Haydn and Brahms. Pascal Rogé has piano music by Faure, Ravel, Debussy and Poulenc, and gives a masterclass and Paul Mealor and the Aberdeen University Choir have concerts and community events.

Royal harpist Hannah Stone gives a recital and premieres a new work by Karl Jenkins whose Armed Man will be sung. Red Priest bring theatrical baroque in a programme including Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales wind up proceedings on the final Saturday with Andrew Gourlay conducting Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, the Mastersinger Prelude of Wagner and Daniel Jones’s Cello Concerto with soloist Paul Watkins.

The concert opens with the Anniversary Dances of William Mathias, whose daughter Rhiannon will give the address at Festival Eucharist on Sunday morning. Full details on 0800 411 8881.

Reviews

World Premiere Recordings of Vaughan Williams and William Mathias (Somm)

THE 2nd Piano Concerto of Mathias is one of his finest works and, here, has been recorded by Mark Bebbington and the Ulster Orchestra conducted by George Vass. It is coupled with his early 1st Concerto, and the Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra of Vaughan Williams. These are all world premiere recordings, and the programme notes are by Michael Kennedy and Rhiannon Mathias.

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra / Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (Naxos)

MARIN ALSOP and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra present good accounts of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and his Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta on two CDs of major and minor Hungarian music. The Concerto used to be the kiss of death at the box office, but concert-goers now recognise an exciting orchestral showpiece. The Night Music in the string work is suitably eerie and likely to make the hairs on the neck rise.

While Bartok is a major voice in the world, the same can’t be said of his compatriot Eugene Zador. He spent much of his life in Hollywood as an orchestrator, but his Children’s Symphony, Five Contrasts, Hungarian Capriccio and Csardas Rhapsody, make pleasant listening.