Tears for Fears are set to play at the Echo Arena this week. The 80s stars, whose biggest hits include Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Shout and Mad World, will appear at the Liverpool waterfront venue on Tuesday May 8. Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith formed the band in Bath in 1981. The pair had previously played together in a band called Graduate. Their debut album, 1983 record The Hurting, spawned three top five singles including their first hit, Mad World, while their fo

It’s the role that made actor Kevin Bacon famous – the disaffected city boy trapped in small town America where having fun is banned by law. The 1984 film Footloose also spawned a slew of chart hits – Let’s Hear It For the Boy and Holding Out for a Hero among them, and a stage musical version followed in 1998, again pitting outsider Ren against the wary folk of Bomont in his desire to cut loose and dance. This current UK touring production is the first time Selladoor (the int

A musical by Sting which was nominated for awards on Broadway is coming to Liverpool as part of an inaugural UK tour. The Last Ship, featuring actor Jimmy Nail, will be at the Liverpool Playhouse next April. The tale is inspired by the singer-songwriter’s childhood memories and demise of the ship-building industry in Wallsend in his native North East. It has previously been staged in Chicago, and in New York where it was nominated for two prestigious Tony Awards for best orig

Liverpool will step back in time to the pre-historic age with the return of the arena spectacular Walking With Dinosaurs. The multi-million pound production features 18 life-size creatures, including the Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus-rex and nippy Raptors, all created by designers working hand in hand with scientists to make sure they are anatomically correct. Tickets for the Echo Arena shows on July 31 and August 1 next year go on sale this Friday (November 3) at 10am - and the

Professor Brian Cox is making a cosmic return to Liverpool next week. The scientist and former pop star will bring his show to the M&S Bank Arena on Thursday, February 21. Cox will be accompanied by Infinite Monkey Cage colleague, comedian Robin Ince, who will host an audience Q&A at the Professor Brian Cox Live event which is part of a UK tour. Cox said: “On the last tour I loved talking about astronomy and cosmology in very large venues that usually only host rock bands. Th

Musical Mack and Mabel is being staged at LIPA next week. Third year dance students are performing the show in the Paul McCartney Auditorium from November 2-4. The musical, which was premiered in the US in 1974, tells the story of the tempestuous relationship between Keystone Studios director Mack Sennett and his silent movies star, comedienne Mabel Normand. From the moment Mabel first arrives on the set of the ‘King of Comedy’s’ latest film, she catches his eye and soon aft

For many of us the idea of a voyage around the world is a romantic proposition. For Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg – brought engagingly to life in this uproarious crowd-pleaser - it’s purely a mathematical calculation and financial wager. Of course, even the hardest heart and most metronomic, single-minded brain can’t fail to be changed by what happens along the way, particularly when you’re accompanied by a travelling companion as infuriatingly eager, hapless and open to experi

Sheridan Smith is set to sing at the Philharmonic Hall as part of a 2018 UK tour. The award-winning actress, who last appeared on stage in the city in Funny Girl at the Liverpool Empire, will perform in Hope Street on April 13. Priority booking opens on November 2 and tickets go on general sale on November 3. Smith, who won acclaim for her performance as Cilla in Jeff Pope’s ITV mini-series, much of which was filmed in Liverpool, has just released her debut solo album Sherida

The Bombed Out Church is reopening to the public after a £500,000 restoration project with a special event this morning. The Pagoda Youth Orchestra Flower Drummers will perform at the 10am ceremony to mark the end of the work and celebrate the removal of St Luke’s from the Heritage at Risk register after 18 years. As part of the refurbishments of the 185-year-old city landmark, which was destroyed in the Liverpool Blitz in May 1941, a new 3-G architectural lighting system has

Contemporary and classical collide with striking results in this bold reimagining by Akram Khan of one of ballet’s oldest tales. It was a clever move by English National Ballet’s artistic director Tamara Rojo to look to Khan to ‘reinterpret’ the classic for a 21st century audience looking beyond the traditional tutu. And traditionalists be warned, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore. When the company was formed by Alicia Markova and Anton Dolin (initially as the London Fes