The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The Stranglers at the Liverpool Academy, March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

The next time the Beast from the East decides to make an appearance on Britain’s shores, the best form of defence against this cyclonic severe cold and snow would be to tap the resources of a room full of Stranglers fans and then allow the heat to pour out onto the streets in the surrounding areas; the cold of the last few weeks would not have stood a chance as they took in the sounds of a band still rightly considered, the definitive article.

The Stranglers, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(476 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Therapy?, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Therapy at the o2 Academy in Liverpool, March 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

You can over analyse and seek treatment for almost anything, the small ailment through to the overriding sense of disassociation of the age, healing comes with talking and yet there is only one suitable cure for the way the world has turned, and a night of Therapy? is always the best of the Doctor’s orders.

Therapy?, Gig Review. 02 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(450 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Marc Vormawah, Goodbye To Yesterday. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is an approach which gets overlooked in the days of rush and tumble, rhetoric and brimstone, we have become so used to looking forward, urged on by fashion and supposed urgency, that we have in many ways disregarded what was perhaps more important, to look back at our lives and see it for the genuine series of events which made us happy. Not so much a reminisce, or a clouded sepia tinged photograph buying us the moments lost, but more of listening back to our own stories, the once written down, perhaps recorded on a tape deck; when life was just life, not a quest in which to be downtrodden and beaten with a large stick if we are seen to be unproductive for an hour.

Marc Vormawah, Goodbye To Yesterday. Album Review. full post

(474 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Wilde Roses. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

There will always be those who skulk in the garden of ignorance, who believe that history gives us nothing, that all that matters is the here and now and the future, gleaming bright or near dystopia it matters not which, that history is the death knell for advancement and is embroiled in nothing but the view point of Kings. There will always be those who see anything that came before their existence as not worth bothering about, their point of view skewed by the inner nagging thought that they just don’t have the patience to know where we come from and where it has been taking us all along.

Wilde Roses. Album Review. full post

(448 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

The Spear Of Destiny, Tontine. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is always in the hands of destiny, fortune, reputation, chance and fame to know just how you will have been received down the line; a classic band does not rely on those offerings alone of course, their sense of intelligent writing, music sensitivity and seizing the zeitgeist by the scruff of its hairy chin often play more of a part than the hopeful blessing spoken by some; and yet without it somehow it seems to not register just how great the band can be, how talismanic and intriguing they are.

The Spear Of Destiny, Tontine. Album Review. full post

(435 words, 1 image, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Endeavour: Quartet. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Sean Rigby, Anton Lesser, Dakota Blue Richards, Lewis Peek, James Bradshaw, Abigail Thaw, Sara Vickers, Caroline O’ Neil, Sam Clement, Phil Daniels, Madeleine Worrall, Caroline Martin, Aldo Maland, Jojo Macari, Lilly Lesser, Michael Simkins, Felix Scott, Andrew Buckley, Barnaby Taylor, Mark Arden, Louis Strong, Thomas Panay, Anson Boon, David James Fray.

 

If there is ever an emotive subject other than murder to bring into the world of the armchair detective, then it surely has to be the prospect of spies and counter espionage, the two realms of dark forces combined making a seemingly perfect storm in which to pit the wits against and to see who comes out on top; the writer or the viewer.

Endeavour: Quartet. Television Review. full post

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

Collateral, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Jeany Spark, Nicola Walker, John Simm, Nathaniel Martello-White, Ahd, Billie Piper, Kae Alexander, Hayley Squires, Judy Namir, Ben Miles, Orla Brady, Rob Jarvis, Mark Preston, George Georgiou, John Heffernan, Shawn Dixon, Lati Gbaja, Buppha Witt, Molly Simm, Nicola Duffett, Kim Medcalf, Vineeta Rishi, Siobhan McSweeney, Guy List, Richard McCabe, Tom Turner, Jacqueline Boatswain, Robert Portal, Alais Lawson, Brian Vernal, Deborah Findlay, Nick Mohammed, Tony Way, Alex Reid, Adrian Lukis.

Collateral, Television Review. full post

(477 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Strike: Career Of Evil. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Burke, Holliday Granger, Andrew Brooke, Ben Crompton, Jessica Gunning, Matt King, Kerr Logan, Killian Scott, Neil Maskell, Kierston Wareing, Fern Deacon, Antonia Kinlay, Nicholas Agnew, Mollie Peacock, Cosima Shaw, Ann Akin, Suzanne Burden, Kirsty Dillon, Ella James, Emmanuella Cole, Archie Wrightman, Paul Butterworth, Joe Johnsey, Michelle Bonnard.

The human mind is such a complex organism that nobody quite understands, despite mountains of published papers and theories, why anyone would contemplate, let alone endeavour to make a career out of doing despicable acts, a vocation of evil.

Strike: Career Of Evil. Television Review. full post

(445 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Slapped Bass Treated With Love.

 

When I was a boy, you were one

of the men I wanted to be, punk attitude

wrapped up in a skin of pounding music,

and whilst I could not play bass,

or any type of instrument, I still wanted

that naked, fire driven approach, to be angry,

to dwell in me; mean, moody and magnificent,

a bad boy with a good heart, now I

watch you on stage and you slap your bass,

you treat it rough and I think

can I do that with words, a Kerouac love, mean

Slapped Bass Treated With Love. full post

(183 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

Travis To Open The Man Who Live Tour At The Philharmonic Hall This June.

Following their triumphant headline show at On Blackheath Festival last September and due to popular demand, Travis, one of Britain’s best loved bands play their classic album The Man Who live in full for two limited runs this June & December, including a night at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall on June 10th.

Released 19 years ago, The Man Who sounds as fresh today as it did then.  One of the most successful British albums of the last 20 years, it spawned the timeless singles, Writing To Reach You, Driftwood, Turn and possibly the band’s most iconic song, Why Does It Always Rain On Me.

Travis To Open The Man Who Live Tour At The Philharmonic Hall This June. full post

(292 words, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)