Author Archives: admin

Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Meeton, Katherine Parkinson, Kris Marshall, Kevin Bishop, Johnny Vegas, Mandeep Dhillon, Craig Parkinson, Pippa Heywood, Alice Lowe, June Watson, Steve Oram, Jarred Christmas, Lloyd Griffith, Steve Brody, Norma Cohen, Tina Gray, Chris Willoughby.

The character of the British psyche is such that one of the often-repeated observations of them is that they suffer under the almost back-breaking and chronic apprehension, that they are, until overwhelmingly pushed, passive, practising the art of not wanting to cause a scene, almost aloof, arrogant in their perpetual standoffishness, and generally, cripplingly reserved.

Paul Dood’s Deadly Lunch Break. Film Review. full post

(507 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Dana Fuchs: Borrowed Time. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

No matter where you go in life, there is always a Wildwood.

Such a place on the map goes by many names, some archaic and stubborn, some a little brighter, but no less conservative in its outlook, and the person with emotional dreams, with a different outlook on life, will always find a way to leave it…dreams are always on Borrowed Time, and if you don’t escape the Wildwood when the call comes, how can you ever hope to return with ideas on how to change it for the better.

Dana Fuchs: Borrowed Time. Album Review. full post

(476 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Kit Derrick: Hope Is A Six Letter Word. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The world of the solitary writer/novelist has been undercut and arguably abused in recent years. No longer celebrated by mass readership as thinkers and as people willing to scratch under the surface of observation, the artistry of the dispenser of words, wisdom, and wit has been arguably reduced to that of entertainer, a person to whom it seems is writing for a hobby; or at least that is how some sections of society and unfavourable book forums react.

Kit Derrick: Hope Is A Six Letter Word. Book Review. full post

(472 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Legend Of The Sea Devils. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, John Bishop, Simon Carew, Crystal Yu, Marlowe Chan-Reeves, Arthur Lee, Nadia Albina, Jon Davey, Chester Durrant, Craige Els, Mickey Lewis, David Tse.

Nobody ever wants a disappointing end, but in life arguably we must make the most of the final reflection offered us, and whilst we may prefer a reward before the last gasp adventure, quite often it is sadness, perhaps melancholy, and certainly the unavoidable grief that haunts our last and most private thoughts.

Doctor Who: Legend Of The Sea Devils. Television Review. full post

(639 words, estimated 2:33 mins reading time)

Dune (2021). Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Zendaya, Chang Chen, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, Javier Bardem, David Dastmalchian, Babs Olusanmokun, Golda Rosheuvel, Roger Yuan.

To adapt faithfully for cinema a novel so revered, covered in glory, and one that wears the word epic as if it were a robe sewn by hand for someone with more money than a small nation, is to perhaps court feelings of unrestrained excess, to forgo modesty in favour of magnified extravagance, and no matter how noble the intention, no matter how faithful, there on screen will be the accusations of pretension.

Dune (2021). Film Review. full post

(493 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Suzi Quatro, The Rock Box 1973-1979: The Complete Recordings. Album Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Undoubtedly Suzi Quatro will go down in history as one of the godmothers of Rock ‘n’ Roll. That she broke through in a time of Glam Rock means little, for this musician could have forced her way into the charts and into the national collective psyche at any point, and yet she strode the stage as a colossus of the period, a million racing hearts cheered her on, captivated by her drive, her presence, and the generosity of spirit, the woman who came from under the shadow of her sister’s band, The Pleasure Seekers, and stormed the world, who spun like a Catherine Wheel fuelled by an nuclear power source.

Suzi Quatro, The Rock Box 1973-1979: The Complete Recordings. Album Box Set Review. full post

(542 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Carbon Black: We Remain. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

If you have something to say, then say it, or as old journalists used to insist on quoting The Duke of Wellington, “Publish and be damned”.

There is no sense in being coy in a world that has lost its way, in which has embraced the vacuous void of human impression, in which we have allowed, permitted, atrocities and carnage to take hold in our name, whilst slowly, unmistakably, seeing our souls wither, still conscious but barely able to withstand the pressure placed on its fragile shell-like existence.

Carbon Black: We Remain. Album Review. full post

(430 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Rory Matheson & Graham Rorie, We Have Won The Land. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is almost seen as a rite of passage, the sense of returning to a place where the traditional encompasses the message of despair, of hope being removed by darker conglomerate forces, and the song that catches the feeling of tough times being endured by resilient men and women in the perpetual struggle to be free.

Rory Matheson & Graham Rorie, We Have Won The Land. Album Review. full post

(362 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Robin Trower: No More Worlds To Conquer. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Alexander wept as he found he had little left to overcome and occupy, Robin Trower, the iconic British Bluesman who was one of the forces of genius behind Procol Harum and has performed with legends such as Jack Bruce and Bryan Ferry, on the other hand still has much to put down in sheet music, still has much to say and translate into the voice of his trusted guitar, that his new album’s title might seem a tad premature, for while the label might read No More Worlds To Conquer, surely there are realms in which the master can place before the uninitiated his sizeable and overwhelming musical talent.

Robin Trower: No More Worlds To Conquer. Album Review. full post

(460 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Killing Eve. Series Four. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jodie Comer, Sandra Oh, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia, Edward Bluemel, Camille Cottin, Robert Gilbert, Anjana Vasan, Adeel Akhta, Imogen Daines, Steve Oram.

All good things must end, and all celebrity obsessed, all public fascinations must finally be allowed to go out in a blaze of glory.

There have been few series that have caught the public’s imagination as much as Killing Eve, and perhaps even less that when it comes right down it, when it is actually scrutinised and boiled down to its component parts, is willing to take the audience on a trip that appeals to base function and highbrow voyeurism in a tale that is seems complicated but is actually a wonderful, well-planned tease.

Killing Eve. Series Four. Television Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)