Author Archives: admin

The Undercover Hippy, Truth & Fiction. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It really is a blurred line that makes the properties of Truth & Fiction such a divisive and talked of machine, both used to the same effect, both used to either subjugate or release the listener, both designed to either control or free the willing recipient, after all people hear what they need to and mainly the open mind gets allowed to wallow in the cell of its open making because facts are manipulated and lies are watered down to make them palatable.

The Undercover Hippy, Truth & Fiction. Album Review. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Blondie, Pollinator. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

The willing is there, you would obviously expect nothing less than that from the woman who dominated iconography and pictures on many a teenage wall across the generations, yet sometimes the final product is not enough to make up for the lack of enthusiasm a fan or a listener might appreciate that comes across in less than exciting, less than fulfilling terms as they take in the latest album by Blondie, Pollinator.

Blondie, Pollinator. Album Review. full post

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

The Suns, Tears Me Away. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Suns return to the thoughts of Liverpool’s music loving public with a superbly arranged track which does wonders for the senses and for the craftsmanship of song-writing; one that really does showcase how a group or a duo can take their songs to a different level and perspective without losing quality and the prospects of who they are or what they stand for. It is a song that you find listening to more than just a few times in a row and one that you will find difficult to tear yourself away from.

The Suns, Tears Me Away. Single Review. full post

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

Unlocked, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast: Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, Michael Douglas, Toni Collette, John Malkovich, Akshay Kumar, Adelayo Adedayo, Tosin Cole, Brian Caspe, Aymen Hamdouchi, Jessica Boone, Philip Brodie, Affaello Degruttola,

Unlocked, Film Review. full post

(608 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

Babs, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Samantha Spiro, Nick Moran, Leanne Best, Jamie Winstone, Luke Allen-Gale, Zoe Wanamaker, Robin Sebastian, Daniel Ben Zenou, Toby Wharton, Nicholas Asbury Jerry-Jane Peers, Alex Macqueen, Ross green, Rob Hughes, Tom Forbes, Joe Stilgoe, Julia Ford, Rob Compton, Charlie Archer, Honor Kneafsey, Jonathan Rhodes, Barbara Windsor.

 

Babs, Television Review. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Worry, They Are Still There.

Yes, it is a victory for common sense

and decency, our Gallic cousins

showing the way to truly be

a member of the Human Race,

yet let us not forget,

let us make sure we remember

that despite the horrors

visited upon the French

by a despicable regime

in our grandparents’ time,

that eleven million of them

still unbelievably backed

a party steeped in fascism;

that is the point,

that a third who voted

saw the opportunity to seize the past

once again.

 

Worry, They Are Still There. full post

(90 words, estimated 22 secs reading time)

Steve Hackett, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2017).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Steve Hackett at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, May 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

The world has changed so much in the last 40 years that barely a whisper of it is now recognisable, fashions have come and gone, a couple of generations of music lovers have been born and slid silently into the edited grooves of downloadable music and fought with all their might to claim the art form as their own, that in their minds they, understandably, are the ones who invented music.

Steve Hackett, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2017). full post

(577 words, 1 image, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Caught Somewhere Between Cornwall And Midland Son.

I want to hold your hand today,

you made me far too independent

and I am so far away, a life time

perhaps, a sense of searching for identity

urging me on to be something more than

a boy of Cornwall and a son of the Midlands,

somewhere in between, always torn

between the two and with the honour

of both branded, indelibly tattooed,

deep into my sometimes angry,

always passionate heart.

As you wait at home for news

from the calling of the foundry,

Caught Somewhere Between Cornwall And Midland Son. full post

(115 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

Roxanne de Bastion, Heirlooms & Hearsay. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There is no flaw that cannot be overcome, there is no praise that should be anything but sincere, to deceive in such actions, to neglect both yourself and the object of your applaud is to do disservice to the world. In such actions the beauty of Roxanne de Bastion’s Heirlooms & Hearsay only stands taller, it is not so much a moment of beauty that captivates and spreads the sense of optimism, of joyful response to the questions that unfold but also one that frames how deep seated the artist’s thoughts go when they see parallels between the world they see and that in which their grandparents witnesses.

Roxanne de Bastion, Heirlooms & Hearsay. Album Review. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Knock Knock. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas, David Suchet, Mariah Gale, Mandeep Dhillon, Colin Ryan, Ben Presley, Alice Hewkin, Bart Sauvek, Sam Benjamin.

Knock Knock. Who’s always there? The tenth series of Doctor Who since its gallant return has been one of tea time horror, it might be going out a couple of hours later than the classic series under the stewardship of Tom Baker but all the hallmarks are there to encourage further the even most unconvinced television viewer that the B.B.C programme has moved Heaven and Earth to reflect both the times we find ourselves in and to generate where possible the image of a time when the Doctor had more than a few ghost stories and haunted houses in which to delve around in.

Doctor Who: Knock Knock. Television Review. full post

(545 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)