Author: Uncover

Piano busking festival Tickle the Ivories returns to Liverpool ONE this summer (20 July – 30 Sept). We sat down for a chat with filmmaker Glenn Hanstock, who created an award-winning documentary film of the 2014 festival, about his work and why music resonates with everyone.

U: Why do you think Tickle the Ivories has captured the public’s imagination?

GH: It’s captured the public’s imagination because music is a universal language. In fact, it’s the only universal one. Music has the ability to touch you emotionally, unite and divide.

I think what Tickle the Ivories does so well is bring the emotional power of music to the public in public places like Liverpool ONE where they don’t expect it. It touches the public as a whole in such a positive way.

It’s also a platform for amazing talent that otherwise struggles to be heard.

U: What motivated you to make the film back in 2014?

GH: Having a musical background and passion for documentary, I was looking for a project I felt I could bring my creative talents as a director and understanding of music to. Tickle the Ivories seemed the obvious choice.

U: Is there a film you’ve made that you’re most proud of and why?

GH: In all honesty, I’m still really proud of Tickle the Ivories and it’s been the foundation for me to go on and work with some well-known music industry talent – like The Courteeners.

U: What upcoming projects are you working on?

GH: I’m currently directing a feature length music documentary Embrace the New, featuring legendary guitarist and songwriter Johnny Marr, Shaun Ryder, Peter Hook, Clint Boon, Rowetta and legendary DJ Graeme Park of Hacienda Classical. Graeme is also the film’s producer.

You can view teaser clips on our social channels and website as we’re currently in talks with Warner Brothers and other commissioners about a broadcast release.

U: Where is your favourite place in Liverpool?

GH: Right now I absolutely love the waterfront, especially walking from the Festival Gardens through the marina up to Albert Dock with the family. In the sun it’s so beautiful. Lifts the spirits!

U: Where should people look to find more about your work?

GH: Apart from working on bigger broadcast projects, music videos and events my company Electrobank Media is committed to producing video content of the highest quality for brands and businesses.

Since setting up in 2012 we’ve worked on brand videos, corporate films, live sporting events coverage, short dramas, online video content, commercials and documentaries.

We’re expanding to provide individually tailored social media video marketing solutions for our clients to help them achieve the maximum exposure and engagement with video.

Online video has absolutely exploded and it’s an exciting place to be.

Find out more about Glenn and Electrobank at their website – Twitter – Facebook – Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

The tenth edition of Liverpool Biennial, Beautiful world, where are you?, invites artists and audiences to reflect on a world in social, political and economic turmoil. Celebrating their 20th anniversary of presenting international art in the city, this year’s Biennial will take over public spaces, galleries, museums, and online through commissioning artists to showcase their work across a fifteen-week period.

Here are our top picks for 2018:

Francis Alÿs, a Belgian-born artist now living and working in Mexico, diverted from his training as an architect after issues of urbanisation and social unrest in Mexico inspired his decision to become a visual artist. Presenting a selection of postcard-size paintings at the Victoria Gallery and Museum, Alÿs will explore and confront ideas around global tourism in contemporary art.

Performance artist Reetu Sattar from Dhaka, Bangladesh, works with video, text, objects, and photography, creating time-based pieces exploring presence and absence, memory, loss resilience and the ephemerality of existence. His work will be shown at the Liverpool Playhouse and will draw together many performers, each of whom will play a single note of the seven notes of the harmonium, exploring the violence and social upheaval that has recently affected Bangladesh. The performers convey the powerful statement that their traditions are here to stay, as the harmonium is in danger of disappearing in Bangladesh due to much stricter interpretations of Islam.

At the Bluecoat Suki Seokyeong Kang is creating a new multi-part installation that deploys various media to seek a synesthetic expansion of painting. Kang creates an environment that guides the direction of her paining through movement and rhythm, which she then uses as a visual musical score. With her practice situated between the abstract and figurative, the organic and geometric, she uses visual language to convey both balance and harmony.

Also at the Bluecoat, Melanie Smith will present her new film Maria Elena. The title of the film is taken from a hexagon-shaped town of the same name situated in the Atacama Desert, South America; one of the world’s driest deserts. Trained as a painter, Smith explores the extended field of painting within the history of art and its relation to the moving image.

Naeem Mohaiemen’s film Two Meetings and a Funeral is showing at St George’s Hall. Mohaiemen is a filmmaker from London, who use essays, film, and mixed-media installations to examine the collective memory of failed utopias, framed by Third World Internationalism and World Socialism. Her three-channel film will explore Cold War-era power struggles between the political coalitions of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Another Liverpool Biennial commission based at St George’s Hall is Inci Eviner’s film Reenactment of Heaven. The sequence reflects on ideas of heaven, questioning how religion and economy interact, counter and determine each other in different contexts. Eviner focuses in on the placement of woman in heaven, aiming to give women agency over that of societies dominated by the male gaze. The film carries these messages through blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, using masks, stage design and symbolic props.

Tate Liverpool will be showcasing the work of Haegue Yang. In the Wolfson Gallery, Yang will create a new environment for her sculpture series, The Intermediates (2015-ongoing). Constructed from artificial woven straw, this exhibition alludes to both traditional arts and crafts techniques, and modern production methods. Representing figures and sites from folk tales and ancient traditions in a variety of configurations, Yang’s work questions the definition of ‘paganism’.

Banu Cennetoğlu lives and works in Istanbul, exploring the political, social and cultural dimensions of production, representation and distribution of knowledge. How does this feed into a society’s collective thinking and become part of its ideology? In 2006 she initiated BAS, a project space in Istanbul focusing on the collection and production of artists’ books and printed matter. Compiled and updated each year, The List races information relating to the deaths of more than 33,000 refugees and migrants who have lost their lives within, or on the borders of Europe since 1993. Among other places, she has put it on bus stops in Basel, billboards in Amsterdam, a wall in Los Angeles, advertising columns in Berlin, and a public screen on top of Istanbul’s Marmara Pera hotel.

Image 1: Suki Seokyeong Kang, Land Sand Strand, 2016–2018

Image 2: Haegue Yang, Long Neck Woman Upside Down, 2016

 

The Feis, a brand new annual event is coming to Liverpool in the biggest celebration of Irish culture the city has seen. The festival is set to bring some of the most renowned names in contemporary and traditional Irish music across the water to Liverpool’s World Heritage Waterfront on Saturday 7 July. Continue reading to find out more about some of the artists preforming in this year’s line-up, including festival headliner Van Morrison.

Van Morrison

Sir George Ivan Morrison is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and record producer. In 2016, he was knighted for his musical achievements and his services to tourism and charitable causes in Northern Ireland.

Also known as “Van the Man”, Morrison rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer in the Northern Irish R&B band Them, before his solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ in 1967.

As one of the biggest names in Irish music, Morrison is set to headline amongst a variety of established Irish talent.

Foy Vance

Foy Vance is a critically acclaimed singer and songwriter hailing from Bangor, Northern Ireland. Vance is deeply rooted in the rich musical history and aesthetic of the Southern United States, and was invited to tour worldwide with the likes of Snow Patrol, Ed Sheeran and Sir Elton John.

In late 2015 Foy became only the second artist signing to Gingerbread Man Records, a division of Atlantic Records started by Ed Sheeran.

Shane MacGowan

Shane MacGowan is an English born musician and singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of Celtic punk band The Pogues. Shane was eighteen when punk broke, and for him it was heaven-sent.

Alongside the Pogues, Shane also worked on solo material and collaborations with artists such as Joe Strummer, Nick Cave, Steve Earle, and Kirsty Macoll in their famous performance of the “Fairytale of New York”.

Hothouse Flowers

Hothouse Flowers are an Irish rock group that combines traditional Irish music with influences from soul, gospel and rock.

The group first formed in 1985 when Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna Ó Braonáin, who had known each other as children in an Irish-speaking school, began performing as street musicians. They were soon joined by Peter O’Toole and had won a street-entertainer award within a year. They renamed the group ‘Hothouse Flowers’ and began writing songs and performing throughout Ireland.

Hothouse Flowers are set to perform amongst some of Ireland’s biggest bands at Feis Liverpool this July.

Sharon Shannon

Sharon Shannon is a talented musician who strives to surprise. Beginning with Irish folk music, her work demonstrates a wide-ranging number of musical influences through her admired accordion, fiddle, melodeon and tin whistle technique. Shannon has always been eager to explore new style alongside Irish influences in her music, mixing in unexpected styles from around the world such as African music.

Sharon’s free-wheeling approach is what makes her so exciting, which has been put down to the time she spent playing with The Waterboys.

Nathan Carter

Nathan Carter is a country singer who has been signed to Decca Records since 2014. Irish media nominates him as one of the biggest stars of the Country and Irish genre, with Celtic influences evident in his music also. After mastering the accordion, he won All Ireland medals for singing and his instrumental technique by the age of twelve.

Born in Liverpool to parents originating from Newry, Nathan returns with The Feis to play alongside some of the biggest names in Irish music in celebration of Irish culture in the city.

Katie McGowan

If you’re looking to explore signature graphic style, figural distortion and the defiance of conventional norms of beauty, then immerse yourself in Egon Schiele’s radical artwork alongside the sublime photography of Francesca Woodman this summer at Tate Liverpool.

As one of the most important artists of the early 20^th century, Egon Schiele’s highly original vision of the naked figure echoes his contribution to modern art, his work noted for its intensity and raw sexuality. The many nude paintings, both male and female, convey Schiele’s rejection of traditional beauty ideals through emphasising tension and tragedy in the human body. The twisted shapes, expressive lines and unflattering angles used in his paintings further mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism. Creating around three thousand drawings over the course of his brief career, Schiele was both an extraordinarily prolific and unparalleled draughtsman.

Schiele’s portraits and self-portraits helped re-establish the vitality of both genres with their unprecedented level of emotional and sexual directness. Despite his infamy, Gustav Klimt became one of Schiele’s biggest supporters as well as his mentor.

Schiele’s time spent in the army was very light throughout the war, as he never saw any front-line fighting. He was able to paint and sketch while guarding Russian prisoners of war and performing other guard duties. Despite Schiele’s short life (he died aged just 28 in the influenza pandemic that ravaged a war-battered Europe) he produced an astonishing number of works on canvas and paper in his time. Schiele was also instrumental in formulating the character of early-20^th-century Expressionism, characterised by the use of irregular contours, an often somber palette, and frequently dark symbolism.

Join Tate Liverpool ten years after their internationally acclaimed Gustav Klimt show, as they showcase rarely-exhibited drawings by Egon Schiele in an exhibition marking the centenary year of his death.

Katie McGowan

Folk on the Dock 

Discover over 200 international folk, sea shanty, roots and acoustic acts, as they take to the Dock Stage in a three-day celebration of Liverpool’s rich music and maritime heritage. Produced by Martin and Marina Blore of Fit the Bill, the duo brings you a series of free and ticketed events across the August Bank Holiday weekend to commend the intersection of unique canals and waterways that helped import and export music worldwide. Presented by the BBC’s renowned radio presenter Janice Long, Folk on the Dock partners with the Liverpool Shanty Festival to encourage the promotion of contemporary artists at this distinctive waterside attraction.

International Beatleweek

Liverpool’s leading Cavern City Tours celebrate the iconic music of the Beatles in a week-long event from August 22 – 28. With live music at the forefront, the festival invites 70 bands from over 20 countries to perform in various venues across Liverpool. From theatre shows and outdoor venues, to the Annual Beatles Convention and late night parties, Beatleweek takes you in and out of the city to discover more about where it all began. So if you choose to join for the odd event or the whole week, Cavern City Tours have created multiple options for you to enjoy Beatleweek in the best way possible.

Smash the Keys

Join the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic as they dedicate part of their season to celebrate the world’s most beautiful instrument, the piano. Watch September’s Smash the Keys storm Sefton Park in a ten-day music festival that explores more than just the classical genre. Expect to hear all forms and genres played by the biggest names in music – hip hop, jazz, grime, and swing. In partnership with composer Nick Smith, the Philharmonic will be presenting Emmy nominated Anderson Roe to open the festival, so come along and watch the humble piano take centre stage from 20 – 30 September.

Liverpool International Music Festival

Liverpool International Music Festival (LIMF) returns to Sefton Park for another weekend of diverse music, showcasing world-renowned artists alongside a thriving variety of local talent. Heading into its sixth year, LIMF offers up to 18 hours of unforgettable music spread across two days, featuring artists such as Brit Awards nominee Jax Jones, NME’s Stefflon Don, Example & DJ Wire, Wiley, and acclaimed Norwegian singer/songwriter Aurora. With LIMF Academy set to return,aspiring musicians have the chance to get exclusive access to industry experts and development opportunities. Immerse yourself in a weekend of unique artists, and help celebrate Liverpool’s ever-evolving relationship with music.

Katie McGowan

What do you want to see on LightNight? With over 100 free events, performances, installations, exhibitions and more on the annual ‘culture crawl’ it can be tough to know where to start. We’ve planned a route that will take you from early evening, right through to early morning.

Let’s start at the Waterfront.

Why not head to one of Liverpool’s newest spaces, RIBA North, to step into a mesmerising new world and get into the mood for the evening. Jayson Haebich’s Diffringere is a LightNight commission. An interactive work, it creates a mesmerising effect of colour and light, taking pure white light from a laser and breaking it apart into millions of its component colours, which are then scattered around to create a dazzling array of colour and light.

With your mind blown, check the time to see if you’re ready for a performance of The Cockatrice at Tate Liverpool. At 17:30, 18:00, 18:30 and 19:00 this 15 minute puppetry performance is new from Headstrung and is all about a creature of transformation, created when a chicken’s egg is hatched beneath a toad. Perfect for small audiences, brace children and curious adults!

At 18:00, Singing Mirror begins at the British Music Experience, based in the Cunard building. Another LightNight commission, it’s an immersive sound and light installation that’s responsive to the presence of visitors, transforming you in a series of kaleidoscopic patterns.

If we’re going to pack everything in, we’re going to have to hop on the LightNight heritage bus. It’s free and loops the city until late into the evening, so it’s the perfect way for us to get around.

Next stop: the Baltic Triangle!

At new space Hinterlands you’ll find Anamorphix, a new 3D live light installation and performance by audio-visual artist Carlos Bernal, using electronic sounds with a combination of LED bars and projection-mapping. No two people will see the same thing in this immersive environment that reveals a new dimension. Performances at 19:00, 19:45, 20:30 and 21:15.

Cains Brewery Village round the corner is a great place to stop for a bite to eat. Baltic Market is one of LightNight’s new food hubs, where you can take on enough fuel to keep you going.

On Jamaica Street you’ll find Baltic Creative, where asCreatives have an evening planned for little LightNighters. There’s also Dorothy, which is hosting the Nineteen Hundred & Eleven Party , an interactive installation celebrating Liverpool’s enduring desire for social justice and transformation. Get involved and contribute your own unique campaign poster to a growing exhibition of the demands for change we want to see in society.

We’re back on the bus to Hope Street, where from 10pm until 10.30pm see Drum Clash 2.0 at the Metropolitan Cathedral Piazza. Using light, rhythm and movement LUMA Creations/ OLC Productions present the heartbeat and power of the drum through changing shapes and shadows of light; creating change from the natural to the mechanical.

Bold Street is only a few yards away and from 17:00 until 21:00 celebrate all things revolutionary at News from Nowhere with Revolution! Deeds and Words! What does Revolution mean to you? From Suffragettes to #MeToo! La Lutte Continue!

We’ll wave hello to FACT and onwards to Bluecoat where there’s a whole night of hands on family fun planned. Spend the evening in the garden with choirs, DJs and live musicians; then refuel at the outdoor bar and barbecue with a performance from Halcyon Syncopators at 19:45. From 19:40 to 20:00 Dung Beetles’ Cosmic Journey in the courtyard.

Cross Church Street and walk to Lime Street where you’ll find STANZA by John Elcock. The Liverpool artist has created a new work transforming an ordinary street into a place of reflection. Take a moment out of the hustle and bustle before the next event.

Soul restored it’s time for William Brown Street. Make it by 20:15 and you’ll see Batala Mersey on the Picton Steps, a static small band drumming performance expressing the conceptual origins of the Brazilian spirit.

Liverpool Singer-songwriter and guitarist Nick Ellis performs a style of streetscape narrative-noir blended with a classic British acoustic approach in the Picton Reading Room at 21:00. Looking at ideas around the transformation of places, Nick is performing pieces from his work Adult Fiction; a novel set to music.

Meanwhile, from 17:00 until 22:00 see Fashion Geographies, an immersive staged fashion event which is a synergy between fashion design, fashion communication and art installation. The digital imagery of heritage ‘stories’ is projected onto plain outerwear garments (designed and constructed by 2nd year LJMU fashion students) as part of a dynamic installation.

Back on the bus because we’re going to Baltic with our dancing shoes firmly on.

At Constellations it’s time for the LightNight After Party, where four female artists come together to jump start LightNight into its next phase. Open Culture and Cartier 4 Everyone present four female artists at one unifying party to jumpstart LightNight into its next phase. DANCE4MATION starts at 20:30 until 02:30  An audio-visual installation blurs into a dance piece; legendary LGBT/BAME archivist Sandi Hughes sets the tone with party tracks cut from 1975 to 2005; then the vital global grooves of Giovanna (SisBis) light up the dancefloor further, before the Bollywood/Punjabi pop/club/hip-hop melting moves of south London’s Manara carry us away. Also features a new work by locally-based video artist Anna Levin, screened from 20:30 to 21:30.

If you’re looking for a festival that sums up Liverpool’s independent spirit and passion, then the annual Writing on the Wall Festival (WoWFest) is certainly worth discovering.

WoWFest is a literary/writing programme that runs throughout May. Formed out of the city’s Dockers’ Strike in the late nineties, the festival covers race, gender, sexuality, politics, satire, and music. Beginning in 2000, previous years have seen appearances from guests such as Liverpool’s own Alexei Sayle, Bonnie Greer and the renowned Noam Chomsky.

In 2018 the festival theme is ‘Crossing Borders’, looking at how writers can open up borders and heal differences between people. The theme covers migration and race issues with messages of togetherness and inclusivity; a kind of antidote to the current Brexit and Donald Trump worldview.

Below we’ve picked just a few of our WoWFest highlights, but be sure to head over to their website for the full rundown!

‘Fiction trumps Trump’ sees writers react to Donald Trump’s unique visions with a series of entertaining and challenging arguments – a satirical way to ‘Make Fiction Great Again’. Featuring acclaimed writers Sim Bajawa and Bidisha. (Blackburne House,  30 May, 19:30)

The Labour Party Shadow Attorney General Shami Chakrabarti is a guest at Toxteth Library with her book Of Women. Focusing on gender injustice, the discussion looks at the often-poor treatment of women which she argues is human rights abuse. (Toxteth Library, 17 May, 16:00)

‘Beyond #metoo’ features author Vanessa Olorenshaw and deals with recent gender issues that actually subvert the overall festival theme. The talk covers ways in which certain borders do need to be fortified and maintained. (The Women’s Organisation, 9 May, 18:00)

Fittingly the longstanding radical poet Benjamin Zephaniah is featured at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall. The night includes readings from his autobiographical The Life and Rhymes of… and is sure to cover the current Windrush immigration scandal. (Philharmonic Hall, 20 May, 19:30)

There are also two fascinating walking tours included in WoWFest this year, one retracing the little-known Liverpool Race Riots of 1919 and a second highlighting the history of the Liverpool Irish ‘In Hardship and in Hope’. (1919 Tour starts from Chinese Arch, 13 May, 13:30 and Liverpool Irish Tour starts St Luke’s ‘Bombed out’ Church, 26 May, 13:00)

WoWFest’s Pulp Idol novel writing competition gives a voice to new and original writers. This is a much welcomed event that bridges the gap between the national publishing industry and Merseyside. (Final held at Toxteth Library, 29 May, 19:00)

To round off the month, let your hair down at what will definitely be an amazing after party. Hosted at Constellations in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle, the night includes rapper Potent Whisper and DJ collective SisBis. Expect plenty of dancing and mighty funk grooves! The after-party is supported by Between the Borders, who work towards improving the experiences of asylum seekers and migrants. (Constellations,  31 May, 20:00)

WoWFest is a literary festival that doesn’t require an academic knowledge to enjoy, just an open mind. Head along for an inspiring collection of events that highlight Liverpool’s humanity and imagination.

Ade Blackburn