Here’s To The Death Of Pac Man.

 

Bless you, sweet Ginsberg, you saw your generation destroyed by madness,

whereas mine, well we reaped what you sewed, crooked lines

of pop culture madness, here’s to the death of Pac Man,

junkie infused tablet eating, pill popping maniac,

spare the ghosts turning blue with cold, spare the next level up

for what did it prove in the end, that we were just part of Pop Culture,

that Generation X reaped the seeds of what was no longer normal

as we hid ourselves in the dark and chewed occasionally on food delivered

Here’s To The Death Of Pac Man. full post

(664 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

Folk legend Kate Rusby Set To Enchant Chester’s Storyhouse Audience This October.

Kate Rusby is of the finest interpreters of traditional folk song and one of our most emotive original songwriters – melding old and new so you can barely see the join, Mercury Prize winner, Folk Singer of the Year, Best Live Act, Best Album and Best Original Song winner at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Inveterate Yorkshire Tea drinker. Freeman of Barnsley. Darling of British folk.

It seems impossible but 2017 will be a landmark year for Kate Rusby as she celebrates an incredible 25 years on the road. Still basking in the glow of the accolades for her 14th studio album, Life in a Paper Boat, she will continue to showcase tracks from the album alongside carefully selected much loved classics from her back catalogue spanning the 25 years.

Folk legend Kate Rusby Set To Enchant Chester’s Storyhouse Audience This October. full post

(346 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Ashley Reaks, Track Marks. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is possible to get lost once in a while, to lose all sense of direction and notice that not even the stars can navigate you home; when that happens the best thing to do is look down, not in self pity, not in recrimination but in the assurance that the best way home is to follow the Track Marks laid down long before.

Ashley Reaks, Track Marks. Album Review. full post

(371 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Scott Midlane, Head Down. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To keep your Head Down can be seen as honourable and certainly wise as the gunfire ravages and takes no prisoners; in the end, when all is laid waste, what remains is the auditory sound of the blessed and the determined, the righteous and the indomitable.

The first of three sets of music performed, recorded and mixed by Scott Midlane, Head Down is a sultry affair of acoustic bliss but one that covers with the darkest of cowls a sense of rage and heat which is gritty, strong willed and beautiful to feel permeating across the airwaves.

Scott Midlane, Head Down. Album Review. full post

(381 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

The Routes Quartet, Windrose. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The string quartet is one of delight, harmony within the bow and the wood, a sound that carry heaven upon its shoulders and yet break your heart as easily as a first school crush. Many make much of the virtue of four guitars working in tandem or the beat of a double sided drum kit banging out in unison the call of the wild and the snare of a trap well laid, yet a string section, regardless of whether in pairs or by the full blown orchestral promise, can take your heart to places it never knew possible and the mind into the realms of deep fascination for the sheer synchronisation possible.

The Routes Quartet, Windrose. Album Review. full post

(406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Broken. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sean Bean, Adrian Dunbar, Muna Otaru, Mark Stanley, Aine Ni Mhuiri, Rochenda Sandall, Paula Malcolmson, Paul Copley, Vanessa Earl, Steve Garti, Jerome Holder, David McClelland, Aoife McMahon, Naomi Pickering, Lauren Lyle, Anna Friel, Faye McKeever, Debra Michaels, Matthew Wilson, Thomas Arnold, Daniel C. Bishop, Eithne Browne, Clare Calbraith, Ned Dennehy, Jack Harper, Phil Davies.

 

Broken. Television Review. full post

(519 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Feeling Alone In A Crowded Room.

When you realise

that you have been nobody’s

afternoon idle dream,

that the role of shining knight

was reserved for whoever rode

the biggest horse

or that you cannot imagine

that the world would not be happier

without you in it, that your smile

counted for nothing

on a good day,

then everything else just falls into place,

that you are part of the ninety-nine

percent, even though

you feel alone;

truly and irrevocably in the way

in a room shrouded in people

Feeling Alone In A Crowded Room. full post

(92 words, estimated 22 secs reading time)

Nothing But Thieves Set To Steal Hearts And Minds At The Liverpool 02 Academy.

Following their storming live set at Glastonbury Festival (a snippet from which went viral at the weekend, with over 2 million views to date), Nothing But Thieves are excited to announce a U.K. tour, which kicks off in Newcastle on November 5th and comes to Liverpool’s o2 Academy on November 11th.

This follows the news that their highly anticipated second album, Broken Machine, will be released on September 8th via RCA.  It was produced by Mike Crossey (The 1975, Foals, Arctic Monkeys and Twenty One Pilots to name a few) and recorded at Ranch Studios in California.  The first single, Amsterdam, is currently on Radio 1’s A list.

Nothing But Thieves Set To Steal Hearts And Minds At The Liverpool 02 Academy. full post

(356 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Nickelback, Feed The Machine. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It doesn’t take much mental acumen to notice that the machine is getting bigger, more intolerable, extra insidious; you would have to be without sight and the ability to listen to know that life is less about freedom and more of being ground down and used for fertiliser. Pink Floyd may have welcomed you to the machine but Nickelback have shown in their latest release just how to Feed The Machine.

Nickelback, Feed The Machine. Album Review. full post

(440 words, 1 image, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: All The Glittering Blades. Television Review.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Killian Scott, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Joseph Mawle, Jonas Armstrong, Lydia Wilson, Anna Burnett, Matthew Lewis, Ellie Haddington, Maeve Dermody, Jack Bannon, Joseph Harmon, Gerry O’ Brien.

No matter where you put a man, in a cell or out of harm’s way, the Victorian thinking was they would all eventually revert to a type, that each person could not escape their basic human trait. Good or evil, eventually your character would show and for those caught between the two, being in your guard was not enough.

Ripper Street: All The Glittering Blades. Television Review. full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)