Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Hell is upbeat and the Devil plays a mean tune for the masses, whether you are in the gallery or in the seventh circle enjoying the restricted view but foaming at the mouth at all the associated demons that tend to your every whim and sell you over-priced memories, then Hell is the place where the saxophone plays dirty and the Blues wink happily at the thought of your captured soul.
Same view, different perspective,
constant grass growing under my feet
but now enriched by worms, squelching
through my toes, lazing by the ladybirds
gorging on the unseen insects
and microscopic larva, unchanged,
I may have found new lenses for my eyes,
however, I still witness the same horror
every night and see the devastation
you ring out every day, and still the grass grows,
comfortably, under my feet, tickling
the backs of my knees.
Ian D. Hall 2018
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
A new beginning is not always enough to see the scars disappear from view, however, it makes them easier to bear, the load seemingly shared between the consciousness and the heart, the memories fade, they become hopefully less aggressive, they lose their bite and the snarl dies down to a whimper, but in the soul, the fury gains momentum, that new beginning is purely the symphony ready to build up the tension, to strike up the band and let the haze clear; it is all that is needed to show that Love Lives On.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
If not now, then when? There is always a job to do, a chore to update or a task that requires your attention, however in the best of worlds they would be dismissed, they would play second fiddle to the creative urge and the often snide remarks or frustration that comes with such yearnings, they would be relegated to the muted and the silenced. We set ourselves goals or the faint whisper of dreams but we rarely fully achieve them, Time having this peculiar habit of making sure we forget to wind our clock onwards, to set the alarm of when completion dates are due.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
If you haven’t felt like an outsider in life then perhaps you have either been spared great pain and looks of pity and resentment, or with greater depth, you have looked upon the masses blindly following the latest craze and fashions and thanked whichever deity looks after your soul or your own reason, that you are not part of the experiment. Whichever way you look upon it, being The Outsider is either a blessing or a curse in which to live with.
Just
because
the ground shakes
when the Elephant
trundles past, its trunk swinging
from side to side,
does not mean that the Pachyderm
is responsible
for the Earthquake you feel.
Ian D. Hall 2018
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Little Sparrow at the Music Rooms in Liverpool. April 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
It is natural to miss someone, to let time go past in such a manner that you find the song, that special reason you were drawn to them as a human being in the first place, takes upon itself to be treated like a fine shroud, delicate and interwoven with the days and weeks of since last you saw them, woven with gold silk, the voice that would have captured the soul of Homer’s Odysseus, still resonating around the concert venues of Liverpool and beyond.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Elfin Bow at the Philharmonic Hall’s Music Rooms. April 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
The Philharmonic Hall Music Room is a place where the song that lifts and lilts, that raises hope as well as the roof, is to be seen with a sense of honour and privilege, the dispensing of the day’s trials and injustice, the scream that builds up inside your mind, is let loose, carefully, gently, the kettle that could not stop whistling is reduced to silence and awe as musicians such as Elfin Bow take to the stage and perform their vigil to impart a subtle sense of well being and many a great song.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Bill Nighy, Luke Treadaway, Anthony Boyle, Anna Chancellor, Morven Christie, Crystal Clarke, Alice Eve, Matthew Goode, Ella Purnell, Eleanor Tomlinson, Brian McCardie, Luke Murray, Hayden Robertson, Catriona McNicoll, Abigail Conteh, Rhys Lambert, Frances Grey.
In the world of Agatha Christie nobody is innocent, all have a dark secret they wish to keep hidden from view and it is in the capturing of the human capacity for deceit that makes Ms. Christie, almost 50 years after her death, one author from the 20th Century who makes the reader understand with absolute certainty that death is but a companion in the shadow of our hearts when it comes to the bitterness, jealousy and greed we allow to dwell in our souls.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Anna Friel, Jamie Bamber, Nicholas Pinnock, Ray Panthaki, Jack Doolan, Charlie Covell, Sophie Brown, Keith Allen, Nigel Planer, Jason Hughes, Victoria Smurfit, Peter Sullivan, Amy Dawson, Josh Herdman, Harriet Cains, Victoria Broom, Tamzin Malleson, Vivienne Gibbs, Andrew Tiernan, Lucy Speed, Michael Wildman, Clara Indrani, Yolanda Kettle, Asher Flowers, Imogen Faires, Aldo Maland, Oaklee Pendergast.
The mind is an impressive machine, capable of so much, of inspiring absolutes and able to conquer all with reason, the heavens, the stars and its surroundings, yet often it is missing the vital information required to see the whole picture, to grasp the data shown and act upon it accordingly and deal with life without breaking down, without feeling as though you’re losing your mind.