First published by Liverpool Acoustic on April 5th 2014.
Rating 9/10
Some performers ooze class without even having to play a cord or a single note. Of course when they do put together the start of a new song that you just know is going to capture the imagination and playful tug at the heart strings the only decent thing to do, the only courteous action to take is to wallow in the core of something either incredible or beautiful or…if you are really fortunate, both.
There is a sense of sensuality attached to what I do. Playing the piano in the semi darkness and ill-lit rooms of various pubs, clubs and saloons of this fair city for the price of a good meal and of course the money I receive helps keep me in clothes that I could not afford to buy on the salary as insignificant as mine. Apart from that I do it because I can, because somewhere the extrovert needs feeding and if not to the wolves then to my own self-worth.
My Last Words…
So these will be my final last words. They won’t be recorded; they won’t be repeated in history as in anyway being famous and they will never know of my story beyond the walls of this…prison in which I have kept my own counsel for the past five days. I will say to you now as they offer me a blindfold in which to avoid the staring eyes, deep blue on one, so blue that I could swim and frolic amongst the stars that are reflected on the top as they too dance and shout with a hope of the future to come. They have my future deeply locked within them, he or one of the others will take my life and extinguish it forever. Not for any other crime except for not wanting to fight anymore.
Thom Morecroft may not be a Scouser but the passion he wears on his sleeve for his adopted home of the last few years is plain enough to see. His relaxed style makes swans seem fidgety and yet he has blown away audience after audience with his music and is looked upon as one of Liverpool’s great successes. The Everyman Theatre, newly reopened hides us away as we talk about music, including his love of the Progressive giants Genesis. With a new night of music opening up and a gig to look forward to you might think Thom Morecroft had enough on his plate to deal with but music calls all the time and there is always plenty to discuss.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
To a generation and beyond Suggs is a man who has been with them probably throughout their entire lives. He and Madness are so entwined as part of the very fabric of the U.K’s glowing music history that to dismiss him would be reckless, even a crass thoughtless statement.
For all those that made their way to Southport’s Atkinson Theatre to listen to him relate, admittedly in a condensed form, moments of his lifetime from his best-selling autobiography in the two hour My Life in Words and Music, were left thrilled, amused, slightly stunned at the candour and the utter excitement of a man who has lived and been admired.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Rade Serbedzija, Yasmin Paige, James Fox, Phyllis Somerville, J. Mascis, Sally Hawkins, Cathy Moriarty, Chris O’Dowd, Paddy Considine, Chris Morris, Georgie-May Tearle, Craig Roberts.
What happens when your worst enemy is you? Not psychologically, at least not in the beginning but you, your face is their face, your life is slowly becoming their life and no matter what you do, your existence is being erased, you become even more of a non-entity, a being of such unimportance that people forget your name when they shake your hand, would you fight back to restore your individuality and own self-worth? This is the problem facing the superb Jesse Eisenberg in Richard Ayoade’s dark, almost 1984 like black comedy The Double.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Anthony Hopkins, Douglas Booth, Leo McHugh Carroll, Frank Langella, Dakota Goyo, Marton Csokas, Madison Davenport, Nick Nolte, Mark Margolis, Kevin Durand, Nolan Gross, Adam Griffith, Gavin Casalegno, Skylar Burke
It seems odd that it has taken this long to make a film about one of patriarchs and prophets of Judaism and Christianity when so many others have been touched upon in one way or another since the early days of cinema. For a film titled Noah it is going to be hard for many to get past the big elephant in the ark, as well as all the snakes and the odd Silverback Gorilla. It’s going to take willpower for some not to let a great story get in the way of something so old and too some so sacred.
Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10
Whether you like your music to be organic, to have flowed from the streets that straddle the River Mersey in some age old ritual acknowledgement to the flower and testimony of Liverpool upbringing or to have had the chance to have been guided and nurtured to hone the craft of writing, what you cannot fail to miss is the passion that flows through each tempting note of either camp.
Reminding me
of temptation accompanying the draught of a
Trans-Pennine non-stop
through Stalybridge Station, she drifted
past.
I stood still, watching the clock
taunt my expected departure time;
standing in line for a seat on the next one,
haunted by the
last.
Ian Miller 2014
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The Kazimier could not have anticipated what lay in store. Elements of Gypsy Jazz and Swing backed by Latin beats with a thundering bass, Ska influenced guitar, Samba and Mariachi style trumpeting and what can only be describes as shredding violin combined to produce an awe inspiring sound that shook the rafters and the audience in equal measure. Molotov Jukebox’s long awaited L.P. Carnival Flower was released in the last week and if the second gig following the release at Liverpool’s Kazimier was anything to go by it will see the band soar to the heights they truly deserve. The album speaks for itself but where Molotov Jukebox shines is in the vibrant and electric energy they bring to their live performance ensuring fans will leave the venue short of breath and grinning from ear to ear.