Author Archives: admin

Geostorm. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Gerard Butler, Jim Sturgess, Abbie Cornish, Alexandra Maria Lara, Eugenio Debez, Andy Garcia, Ed Harris, Amr Waked, Adepero Oduye, Robert Sheehan, Richard Schiff, Mare Winningham, Zazie Beetz, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Daniella Gracia, Richie Montgomery, David S. lee, Billy Slaughter, Gregory Alan Williams, Derek Roberts, Randall Newsome.

You can throw all the visual effects at a film production you want but if you cannot supply a script which feels as if it is being delivered by the monotone and the indifferent then the odds are stacked against you from the start. Throw in the almost regurgitated cliche after formulaic chestnuts and you have a film which may sound interesting when being offered to an audience but instead comes out as a huge contender for worst cinema offering of the year.

Geostorm. Film Review. full post

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

The Saturday Night Arcade Fight.

 

We dominated the arcade game

even at the end of the night

when half cut, you on Newquay Steam,

vapour trails followed your hand

as we took the Mutant Turtles

to the sound of Metallica’s

Seek and Destroy in Costermongers

every Saturday night to new extremes;

Searching seek… garbled mess of lyrics

following, yet in tandem

Dear Cousin,

we struck blow after blow

and we raised our beer bottles high

as we drove to victory

in Costermongers every Saturday night.

 

The Saturday Night Arcade Fight. full post

(88 words, estimated 21 secs reading time)

The Musical Box, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It is somehow easy to dismiss the creativity of people, the stroke of genius that inspires others, that captures the zeitgeist and in which something truly incredible can arise, a spectacle, theatre of the mind. It is easy to dismiss it because to some eyes it looks like fun, that the players are solely reaping the applause for having performed a song, written a poem, created a play in which political leaders quake.

The Musical Box, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Death Of Stalin. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jason Isaacs, Andrea Riseborough, Olga Kurlenko, Steve Buscemi, Rupert Friend, Jeffrey Tambor, Paddy Considine, Richard Brake, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale, Paul Whitehouse, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Jonathan Aris, Adrian McLoughlin, Gerard Lepkowski, Dermot Crowley, Cara Horgan.

Politics is a game of wills, the necessity of horse trading played out on a global scale and one in which the sides change so quickly that any gains made one individual are soon scattered to the dusty footnotes of history. It is a game that when played well deserves its own satire, the weak and ineffective politicians get forgotten, the ones who scramble to the top have no other choice but to face the fact that even in death they will be satirised and parodied by the best of writers.

Death Of Stalin. Film Review. full post

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

Just Above My Eye.

 

Just above my eye, the one

I nearly lost the sight in

as a boy, battered

and beaten for being wrong

in the criminal place

of Cooper School fields,

a foe hiding in the enemy,

that is

where the headache has lain,

a small worm perhaps growing fat,

cultivating more room

in which to sneak through

the mind fields

of veins and vanity;

a small chobble here, a bite

there, slowly wearing me away

to nothing,

a headache that is all it is.

Just Above My Eye. full post

(91 words, estimated 22 secs reading time)

The Pretenders, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Those of a certain age will remember fondly The Pretenders bursting onto the music scene in 1979 with The Kinks supremo Ray Davies’s song Stop You Sobbing, then quickly following up with many a fan’s favourite Kid and their most well-known song Brass In Pocket. New Wave music at its best!

It was a glorious time to buy music, audiences had another female fronted Rock band, crowds were spoilt, Blondie and The Pretenders recording equally classic Pop songs; the people who went to see the shows were not just spoilt, they were there at the start of a new dawn.

The Pretenders, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

The Rails, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Many would have seen The Rails, the undeniably cool  Kami Thompson and James Walbourne, two years ago supporting the legendary Richard Thompson, they would have been impressed with the duo and their folky close harmonies that wouldn’t have been out of place in Kami’s father’s old band Fairport Convention. Arguably all would have left any of the gigs on that particular tour buying their intriguing, almost haunting E.P. release Australia.

The Rails, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(349 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

Elliott Morris, Lost & Found. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It doesn’t have to be midnight when you approach the Lost & Found, anytime will do when the beat is strong and the lyrics honestly set, there may the sounds of the orphaned acoustic, the cry of the left behind drum snare but when they find each other, when they realise the company they have is better than anything they have ever known, then something magical happens in the stray but ultimately satisfying corridors; the Lost & Found originate and establish beauty.

Elliott Morris, Lost & Found. Album Review. full post

(424 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Mish Moshing.

 

I Mish Moshing,

so out of breath from the swirl,

the fevered bounce

against another human bein’

that I would not get my words

out properly, as I say with engine stoked

memories forcing their hand,

I Mish Moshing,

the body the tool and the elbow

tucked in but still wary of

the natural enemy

to use force when

no one’s listening, the sly dig

as the ritual reaches

a crescendo of colour

and passing out sweat, flung

over and happily drenched,

Mish Moshing. full post

(121 words, estimated 29 secs reading time)

Jaya The Cat, A Good Day For The Damned. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Being original these days is no guarantee of being seen as a sensation, the fleeting pulse of the accomplishment is in the hands of some whose attention flies like a butterfly in a field of healthy flowers and overwhelming scents. Such is the pull on the music lover’s time, consideration and concentration that the inventive might get overlooked, not because it is found to be wanting, but because people will always find a way to stick to the comfortable, the musical Christmas cardigan that we all sometimes, and without shame, wear.

Jaya The Cat, A Good Day For The Damned. Album Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)