Bullying, by its very nature is a hideous and repugnant. Whether it is in the form of government control, the online world of social media, in the work place, in the home with either gender being the downtrodden and abused or from people you once considered friends, bullying is perhaps the most negative, most destructive practice one person can place upon another’s life.
Yearly Archives: 2014
Mind The Gap, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. (2014)
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Rachel Worsley, Rik Grayson, Errol Smith, Harki Bhambra.
There is a tightening feel in the back of the throat. The stomach, once calm in the open air of the London streets has started to behave like a badly serviced washing machine and the dank, dirty, dusty air is causing the lungs and pores to feel as though scrubbing for a month will not get the skin clean as it clings and scrapes away at any vestige left of reason like an urban fox clawing at the remains of a deep fried chicken and chips strewn on the pavements after one last beer was had.
When Boats Don’t Float.
NT. SHOP. MORNING. BRIGHT .
Nate (mid twenties) reads a newspaper as he walks out of the newsagents. The shelves are bare other than newspapers and cigarettes. A woman (mid fifties) bumps into him.
WOMAN
Prick.
NATE
Hang on you bumped into me.
WOMAN
Just watch it.
NATE
Oh get lost.
She backs away into the shop. Nate continues to read his newspaper.
HEADLINE IN NEWSPAPER
‘CARBON ASTRONAUT BLOWS OUT BRAINS LIVE ON AIR’
The Swapper (PS4 Game Review)
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The Swapper is a side scrolling puzzle adventure game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. This particular game has been recognised with a number of high calibre awards since 2011, such as winning the Indie Showcase award at the Develop Conference 2011 and the Special Recognition award at IndieCade 2011, which certainly helped to bring the game to light as Curve Studios has brought Facepalm Games’ The Swapper to PlayStation platforms.
Kris Drever & Éamonn Coyne. Mareel E.P. E.P. Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Never let it be said that in all parts of the Scottish and Irish main lands and their resident islands that there is not spirit of independence running through its mighty veins and boldly pumping heart. Even if the question upon everybody’s lips is of a different type of individuality, of a changed outlook and striking out on your own like an 20-something year old finally declaring its intention to move into its own apartment, the spirit and culture was always there and remain so everywhere you are willing to take a peek into.
Noises Off, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jennifer Bea, Tupele Dorgu, Jessica Dyas, Stephen Fletcher, Kim Hartman, Phil Hearne, Chris Jordan, Jonathan Markwood, Danny O Brien.
The show must go on…even if there are sardines cluttering up the stage, the leading ladies hate each other, one of the leading men wants to kill the other with a fire axe and the Director is left a gibbering wreck, even with his enormous ego, in the wake of being on stage amongst the carnage and destruction that an acting troupe can bring to a theatre. Think you know theatre, then the magical mayhem of arguably the finest British comedy of the 20th Century, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, is one to behold.
Karen O, Crush Songs. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *
Everybody has a first crush, perhaps even lots of them, that moment in which the stars seem to explode and swirl with the force of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. When the pain and desire of wanting to be with somebody so much is like receiving a blow to the head and in which months, even days later you admonish yourself for feeling the prize berk and abject fool that you feel you have become. Poetry gets written, often as painful as the first fleeting glimpse in which you saw your crush glance your way and in which smitten may as well be tattooed upon your forehead forever.
Deacon Blue, A New Home. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Time has arguably finally seen sense and allowed Deacon Blue the standing that was taken away after runaway success in the 1980s and 90s. For if the last release that the band bought out, the very cool The Hipsters, was a sign of intent, then A New Home is something in which to be proud of, not just for the listener soaking up the graphic-like story-telling and soon to be popular songs that will be broadcast and played live for their loyal audiences, but for the band also, for A New Home is something in where fresh and exciting adventures begin and exploration is pre-requisite.
New Model Army, Between Wine and Blood. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It could all come down to consistency for some, but in the end is there much difference Between Wine and Blood?
For New Model Army, the difference may be down to taste but what they have done with this double C.D. package is something that captures the very best of both worlds. Six brand new songs, six reasons in which to cheer the original work of Justin Sullivan, Michael Dean, Dean White, Marshall Gill and Ceri Monger, six songs in which reminded the listener of the past, specifically around the time of Thunder and Consolation but also in which carries the extremely good work that appeared on the Between Dog and Wolf album.
New Tricks: Ghosts. Television Review. B.B.C.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Ann Firbank, Emily Taffe, Louis Mahoney, Julie Graham, Georgine Anderson, Samuel Taylor, Jasper Jacob, Keith Ramsey, Katherine Jakeways, Emma Ballantine, Ruby Thompson, Arthur Shuttleworth, Scott Stevenson, Emma Louise Williams.