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Around The World In 80 Days, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

Cast: Pushpinder Chani, Kirsten Foster, Matthew Ganley, Dennis Herdman, Michael Hugo, Nyron Levy, Joey Parsad, Andrew Pollard, Stefan Ruiz.

Time was when travelling meant more than just getting on a plane and complaining that the seats weren’t wide enough, the chance to leave a half-baked witticism on a website that gives you free reign to vent steam or to take the obligatory picture of your legs as they start to resemble sausages left in the frying pan for longer than is safe to do. Time was when it meant adventure, and whilst some still lovingly cling to that idea, now the over-riding thought is that it a holiday deserved, not a moment to be taught a lesson or to have your mind expanded.

Around The World In 80 Days, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Sweeney Todd, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * * *

Photograph by Marc Brenner, used with kind permission by Everyman Theatre.

Cast: Liam Tobin, Kacey Ainsworth, Emma Dears, Paul Duckworth, Keziah Joseph, Dean Nolan, Bryan Parry, Shiv Rabheru, Mark Rice-Oxley.

Musicians: Tarek Merchant, Daisy Evans, Samantha Norman, Alex Smith.

Sweeney Todd, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(592 words, 1 image, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

John Jenkins And The James Street Band, Looking For That American Dream. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

Growing up in the shadow and aftermath of World War Two, especially in a period dominated by what can only be described as endless beige and cultural desolation, it is no small wonder that most people in Britain looked across the Atlantic and fantasised about a better life; bombarded by the latest films, television programmes, advertising and consumerism, a place in which the skies seemed endless blue, in which the mantra of being anything you want to be is achievable caught the imagination and made arguably the vast majority understand that they were Looking For That American Dream.

John Jenkins And The James Street Band, Looking For That American Dream. Single Review. full post

(409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Art Garfunkel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2019).

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

Legends only increase in value and heartfelt beauty with time, the song remains the same as the scene before the audience changes, youthful memory gives way to mature understanding, a sense of the distinguished statesman, the adored wisdom of a artist whose sensitivity has never been questioned, suddenly becomes in the eyes of the audience searching for that wonder, a monument made of human emotion and response to the loss of innocence we know for certain will never be found.

Art Garfunkel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2019). full post

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

Manfred Mann Radio Days Vol 2: The Mike D’Abo Era, Live At The BBC 66-69. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 8.5/10

We cannot but help but make comparisons, it is a natural urge to contrast the differences in style between one person and the next, it is perhaps a gauge in which we feel entitled to do so, from our prospective partners, to films and their re-imaginations, through to artistic works and into the realm of music.

Manfred Mann Radio Days Vol 2: The Mike D’Abo Era, Live At The BBC 66-69. Album Review. full post

(649 words, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

The Bordellos, Crabs. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Silently or with fanfare, you cannot but help fight the urge to scratch the lethargy and monotony of the usual suspects finding a way to get into every pore of your life; the usual grinning faces that look down upon you as if all you are is a social disease that is ripe for boiling and taking for all that you are worth, the meat devoured and the shell of your life discarded as if nothing good can come from hiding within your skin of armour.

The Bordellos, Crabs. E.P. Review. full post

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

The Drystones, Apparitions. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

“Ghosts don’t haunt us…They’re present among us because we won’t let go of them”, wrote Sue Grafton with more than a touch of Earthy wisdom. It is perhaps a sentence that carries much weight when viewed from the spectre of how the arts can infect us mind, body and soul, and one that is particularly telling when we realise just how impossible it is to remove ourselves from the fragile beauty of the Apparitions that surround us and which give is great joy and the feeling of incorruptible melancholy at the same time.

The Drystones, Apparitions. Album Review. full post

(373 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

The Victim. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

Cast: Kelly Macdonald, James Harkness, John Hannah, Chloe Pirrie, Ramon Tikaram, Jamie Sives, Joanne Thomson, Pooky Quesnel, John Scougall, Cal MacAninch, Alison McKenzie, Nicholas Nunn, Karla Crome, Isis Hainsworth, Georgie Glen, Seylan Baxter, David Goodall, Zak Leyni, Caron Rae Brand.

We can never truly understand what goes through the mind of a murderer, for some it is a moment of insanity in which they cannot explain the event or their feelings towards the act in any manner that makes sense to the system or the potential psychiatrist who wishes to probe into the complexity of the situation; for others it is a marker, of dominance, of power, of holding a life in the grip of their hands and understanding full well the implications of their actions, and the possible thrill they get as they watch from a close enough distance their act being investigated.

The Victim. Television Review. full post

(593 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Shazam!, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Zachary Levi, Michelle Borth, Djimon Hounsou, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel, Marta Milans, Meagan Good, Grace Fulton, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Stephannie Hawkins, Cooper Andrews, Lovina Yavari, D.J. Cotrona, Natalia Safran, John Glover, Caroline Palmer, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Ava Preston, Jovan Armand, Evan Marsh, Andi Osho, Carson MacCormac, Lotta Losten.

Shazam!, Film Review. full post

(488 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Hellboy (2019), Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 7/10

Cast: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church, Mark Stanley, Brian Gleeson, Nadya Keranova, Maria Tepavicharova, Ana Tabakova, Penelope Mitchell, Terry Randal, Mario de la Rossa, Christopher Mata, Atanas Srebrev, Dawn Sherrer, Michael Heath, Alistair Petrie, Rick Warden, Nitin Ganatra, Sophie Okenedo, Marckos Routhwaite, Ilko Iliev, Joel Harlow, Dimiter Banenkin, Vanessa Eichholz, Kristina Klebe, Charles Shannon, Carl Hampe.

Some characters are so defined by the actor portraying them that is a near impossible task for the audience to imagine anyone else in the role, especially in the cinematic world which holds arguably a greater sway on the mind that of the other visual medium of television and certainly in the realm of theatre.

Hellboy (2019), Film Review. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)