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Doctor Who: The Well. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Caoilfhionn Dunne, Christopher Chung, Annabel Brook, Luke Rhodri, Bethany Antonia, Gaz Choudhry, Gary Pillai, Franki Lipman, Paul Kasey, Jermaine Dominique, Anita Dobson, Amy Tyger, Meg Abernethy-Hope, Beyagy Demba, Umit Gozuacik.

There are episodes of Doctor Who that rank so highly that they will not be forgotten, and they all have one major thread in common, that of the near unseen ubiquitous horror that waits just out of sight or that possesses the power to control from within; all other villains of the tales from the blue box are to be feared, but they, these unseen beings that wonderfully spread dread in their wake, they are the truth of terror given the confidence of anxiety.

Doctor Who: The Well. Television Drama Review. full post

(512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols: Live In The U.S.A. 1978

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The phrase, so well-known, repeated, and misused by some who find ways to sneer at the moment in time that the Sex Pistols managed to install themselves briefly at the very centre of the storm that rightfully gave Britain the kick it needed to finally start pulling away from the Victorian straitjacket that had bound tightly to the sensibilities and rigid indoctrination of the public, somehow frames the three cd release of the band’s tumultuous time in the United States with a kind of consummate ease.

Sex Pistols: Never Mind The Bollocks Here’s The Sex Pistols: Live In The U.S.A. 1978 full post

(551 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Helloween: March Of Time: The Best Of 40 Years. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time was…and time remains in the hands of those willing to be than a bystander, a voyeur, an observer of events, and whilst it is noble to be a credible witness to Time’s passing, to actively get involved in its storm, to pursue an agenda in which your name or your art adds the eddy and the wake, to the whirlwind above and the whirlpool below…that is the gift, and the curse of Time, we are addicted to its allure and if we are not participating fully, then it will leave as nothing more than an onlooker drowning in the very air supplied by the drum that marks its passing.

Helloween: March Of Time: The Best Of 40 Years. Album Review. full post

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

Joe Bonamassa: Gig Review. M & S Bank Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Joe Bonamassa at the M & S Bank Arena. April 25th 2025. Photograph by David Pickles.

The air is filled with the sound of expectation, the faithful 3000 inside the M & S Bank Arena that adds an extra sense of gravitas to the historic view of the skyline of Liverpool’s waterfront can feel the intensity of solemnity radiating from the back of the stage as the momentum and the drama of music that emanates from the guitar of Joe Bonamassa is ready to deal all the aces in a night of high value and atmospheric pulses that went on to rock the space inside the venue with passion and the sound of freedom.

Joe Bonamassa: Gig Review. M & S Bank Arena, Liverpool. full post

(395 words, 1 image, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Samantha Fish: Paper Doll. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Samantha Fish’s track record has been nigh on exemplary, every album, every collaboration, has been immersed in detail and insight; it is proof that alongside others who have given the Blues, not only a rebirth, but a reinvention in the 21st Century, that given the right person and their determination the genre can exist and flourish in a world now dominated by soundbites and ten second videos designed for the mass population.

Samantha Fish: Paper Doll. Album Review. full post

(428 words, 1 image, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Maddison Breen: Odesa. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The continual praise we lay at the feet of some artists is always a pleasure, it is a reminder that constant practise and unbound talent go hand in hand, that it is an even split between dedication and release of emotional endurance, and in Maddison Breen’s latest single Odesa, the beating heart of fearlessness and objectivity in truth is unrepentantly gorgeous.

Maddison Breen: Odesa. Single Review. full post

(277 words, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

Hallie Rubenhold: Story Of A Murder: The Wives, The Mistress and Dr. Crippen. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Ms. Rubenhold’s dedication and calm pursuit of restoring justice to a victim’s name, of insisting with righteous vigour that to which had been stolen by the actions of a murderer, is in itself one of admiration that the reader cannot deny; add to that the strength of character it takes to almost singlehanded tackle what can be seen as a male myopic viewpoint in the characterisation of history’s most foul and heinous crimes is one that deserves every ounce of recognition that the follower of history can muster.

Hallie Rubenhold: Story Of A Murder: The Wives, The Mistress and Dr. Crippen. Book Review. full post

(664 words, 1 image, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

Picture You Dead. Theatre Review. The Lowry, Salford.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Ben Cutler, Fiona Wade, Peter Ash, George Rainsford, Gemma Stroyan, Adam Morris, Jodie Steele, Nicholas Maude, Mark Oxtoby, Valentina Arena, Ross Telfer.

A person will kill for a whole host of reasons, they will do it for love, for revenge, for money, and anger, the motives are often observed to be simple, straightforward, and often they are clouded by detail and unfathomable causes; but none perhaps are as perplexing as those which are committed in the name of ownership in an object, especially in art, for who would kill to have possession of an item that they would never be able to show another human being.

Picture You Dead. Theatre Review. The Lowry, Salford. full post

(418 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Lux. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Alan Cumming, Linus Roache, Anita Dobson, Ian Shaw, Cassius Hackforth, Ryan Speakman, Millie O’ Connell, Lewis Cornay, Lucy Thackeray, Jane Hancock, William Meredith, Samir Arrian, Bronte Barb, Steph Lacey.

For what seems like a lifetime, the opening two episodes of a series of Doctor Who have been strong, well imagined, and framed with the type of intrigue and long vision scheming that made the long running science fiction serial a much-loved institution in its time.

Doctor Who: Lux. Television Review. full post

(366 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Vicki Peterson & John Cowsill: Long After The Fire. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Long After The Fire turns to embers, we can still resurrect the feeling and the emotions felt as the shadows thrown against walls and our souls make us feel the comfort of warm memories, of connecting us to a past where myths and magic were concocted and spoken of in reverential tones, and where those that whispered of images and spirits could be seen as the perceptive wise people of our times.

Vicki Peterson & John Cowsill: Long After The Fire. Album Review. full post

(414 words, 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)