Author Archives: admin

Graham Mackenzie: The Dawning. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Every country has its selling point, the one that is actually not for sale, but which can inspire those who love it to the point where they act as reference for the tourist board and see their work framed as a reason for the visitor to choose the area as a place of existential worship.

Christine & The Queens: Redcar Les Adorables Étoiles. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To be in the company of those that refuse to be placed in comfortable boxes for the benefit of others, is to acknowledge that life is beautifully varied, and we all have the right to have our own truth, if not celebrated, then at least acknowledged for their truth to be heard.

We are fluid, in the eyes of who know us we are not the same person, it comes down to perception, and perceptions are unclear, they are assortments of the larger picture, and it is the same in art, for what one person finds unrealistic, perhaps confusing in one album, they can find demanding and pleasurable in another…and often by the same artist.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Jude Law, Eddie Redmayne, Mads Mikkelsen, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Jessica Williams, Ezra Miller, Callum Turner, Richard Coyle, Poppy Corby-Tuech, Maja Bloom, Paul Low-Hang, William Nadylam, Victoria Yeates, Manuel Klein, Aleksander Kuznetsov, Oliver Masucci, Valerie Pachner, Dave Wong, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Lucas Englander, Fiona Glascott, Matthias Bremner, Peter Simonischek, Katherine Waterston.

Ghosts: It’s Behind You. Christmas Special 2022. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Charlotte Ritchie, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Lolly Adefope, Matthew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Ben Willbond.

Making plans and celebrating special occasions is a staple of humanity’s need for order, and Christmas is perhaps the time when those plans, carefully drawn to the minute with military like precision, are likely to come apart at the seams, fraying at the edge, causing upset and damage to the one so immersed in believing that to be perfect is the least that is acceptable.

Inside No.9: The Bones of St. Nicholas. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith, Simon Callow, Shobna Gulati.

Never mind Halloween, if you want to feel the chill of fear wrap its clawed hand around your heart and mind, then Christmas is the time in which the intoxication of the spirit is more than just filling a glass of your favourite tipple, it is the beginning and the end of all things rational.

I Hate Susie Too. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Billie Piper, Daniel Ings, Leila Farzad, Matthew Jordan-Caws, Lorraine Ashbourne, Phil Daniels, Douglas Hodge, Blake Harrison, Elle Piper, Katy Trafford, Bessie Carter, Layton Williams, Omari Douglas, Reza Diako, Gary Lamont, Jolyon Coy, Ayesha Antoine, Angela Sant’Albano, Yasser Zadeh, Tobi Ejirele, Emmanuel Kome, Fred Fergus, Anastasia Jille, Peter Caulfield, Jude Mack, Elijah W Harris, Bea Svistunenko, Craig McCulloch, Lucy Martin, Sandra Huggett, Ambika Mod.

It is perhaps to be thankful that for the vast majority of us, someone like Suzie Pickles is but a figure to whom we might only come across when we are confronted with when they make a bee line to inject concern and chaos into our lives.

Tim Readman & Andy Cooke: 12 Hits Of Christmas. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It could be argued that one of the reasons that Christmas is so adored is the sense of the comfortable routine that people wrap themselves in, long nights inside beside a humble, but grateful fire, old familiar smells emanating from the kitchen as parents find ways to restore hope with the food they have worked hard for, the swapping of gifts, memories and tokens as songs, both of religious and spiritual meaning, and those we have come to expect, play out from radios, music channels on the television, and mixing in between the adverts like the unwelcome ghost at the Christmas dinner table.

Bright Town : Smithereens. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It takes a village to raise a child, it takes a city to mould it, so what does that mean for the Bright Town that gives the youth its first sense of the dynamic that awaits, the joy of performance that waiting in the wings to be released; could it be that this is where the generations meet, where the once narrow road widens and encourages the youth to take on the mantle of adult hood and take issue with mess left in ruins by the previous incumbents, to smash the relics to Smithereens.

Daria Kulesh: Eve. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is the beginning and the source of life, the beauty of the unknown yet to unfold as we look to Eve to measure our love, and yet we soon allow this passion of the foundation of creation to be usurped by the gods of war, tin men with tin hearts, to employ the means of destruction.

Strike: Troubled Blood. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Tom Burke, Holliday Grainger, Sophie Ward, Jonas Armstrong, Kenneth Cranham, Robin Askwith, Sutara Gayle, Abigail Lawrie, Jessica Impiazzi, Georgia Furlong, Tilly Walker, Carys Bowkett, Thomas Harper-Jones, Ian Redford, Linda Bassett, Syrus Lowe, Phil Langhorne, Kerr Logan, Sarah Sweeney, Genevieve Hulme Beaman, Artie Wilkinson-Hunt, Morgan Jones, Kate Speak, Kierston Wareing, Calvin Dean, Charlie Price, Samuel Oatley, Fionnula Flanagan, Mazz Murray, Giles Matthey, Toni Peach, Eliza Collings, Jack Morris, Ruth Sheen, Andy de la Tour, Jacob James Beswick, Lionelle Nsarhaza, Sam Woolf, Crispin Letts, James Corrigan, Celia Learmonth, Jack Greenlees, Carol MacReady, Anna Calder-Marshall, Madhav Sharma, Dayo Koleosho, Claire Dunbar, Simon Snashall, Ben Crompton, Flaminia Cinque, Cherie Lunghi, Edward Rowe, Michael Tully, Daniel Peacock, Michael Byrne, Mary Roscoe, Billy Boyle, Mollie Holder, Christina Cole, Charlotte Eaton, Henri Merriam, Phil Cornwell, Suzanne Burden, Joe Johnsey.