Author Archives: admin

Texas, Jump On Board. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Somewhere across an ocean they talk of Texas as the Lone Star State, the place where everything is a little bigger than anywhere else, where money and riches are second nature, where life is somewhere to dream of living. Elsewhere Texas is a state of mind, a symbol of music at its very best, where humility is the watchword, where life is a place in which emotion and dreams are part and parcel of the gift of music. This Texas is arguably a finer place to find yourself residing for a while, it is certainly the position in life in which it is always more beautiful to Jump On Board.

Texas, Jump On Board. Album Review. full post

(450 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Thin Ice. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas, Nicholas Burns, Asiatu Koroma, Peter Singh, Simon Ludders, Tomi May, Austin Taylor, Ellie Shenker, Kishaina Thiruselvan, Badger Skelton.

There is always something reassuringly honest about Doctor Who when it finds itself within the past, a story that explains, even in the smallest detail or nugget of information, how history has been seen across the ages, how the unfolding of time is not that different after all from what we believe, or even how wildly inaccurate our modern day of thinking is and how biased it can be when we only use modern devices instead of books to check our facts.

Doctor Who: Thin Ice. Television Review. full post

(520 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Ester, The Ever Continuing Horror Franchise.

It is like a horror film franchise,

Ester of The Shires, The Crimes of Ester,

The prolonged Career of Ester,

Ester’s Revenge, The (Hopeful) Political Death of Ester,

The Rising of Ester, Ester Strikes Back,

Ester…Ester…Ester 8, 9.10…

how the fuck

does she stay in contention,

how does she get parachuted in

to a position of responsibility,

to whom does she appeal,

the blue rinse, the deniers of compassion,

oh dear Ester, I thought we had seen

the very last of you, yet there you are, scuttling

Ester, The Ever Continuing Horror Franchise. full post

(152 words, estimated 36 secs reading time)

Steelesque, Toro Toro. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The Allegheny may be the most famous river that runs through the American heartland city of Pittsburgh, it may the one in which Samuel Diescher’s famous Duquesne Incline takes in the breathtaking scenery and the view of the once famous Three River Stadium, yet like so much else in this town built on coal, ore and iron, beneath the surface there is a vibrancy unnoticed, the visitor, like the three rivers, may pass through it, but rarely do they get to see the beauty or the past that hides in plain sight, that is built not just on the imposing Allegheny or the Ohio but on the might of the Monongahela as well.

Steelesque, Toro Toro. Album Review. full post

(530 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Guardians Of The Galaxy: Volume Two. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Laura Haddock.

All the fun of the original but with added family angst, if you are going to describe Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume Two in any way that resembles a nutshell then you can only go by that, a great family film that has kept Marvel Studios firmly in the top racoon place when it comes to portraying superheroes on film and that D.C. has a long way to go.

Guardians Of The Galaxy: Volume Two. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Chumpism.

Am I scared

of the prospect of World War Three

breaking out

in my lifetime, of course I am,

it is even more worrying

when my children

have not had the chance to even be grown up,

take the first plunge into the lie we call existence,

servitude, being told to pay to be scared,

to feel insignificant

when placed next to the well oiled machine,

the wreck and the reckless of something

that was extraordinary, watch them grow

sick in old age as they once mourned

Chumpism. full post

(206 words, estimated 49 secs reading time)

Sam Lyon, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Sam Lyon in Liverpool. April 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

There is always time to stop and look into the eyes of another soul, to understand if possible even just a fraction of their whole being, for in that the songbird makes the day seem beautiful and the humanity shown is enough to make the recipient sing with even more pleasure than ever.

Sam Lyon, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool. full post

(398 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Paul John Walker, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Paul John Walker in Liverpool, April 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

 

The constant revolution that transpires across Liverpool’s music scene is almost a daily walk through just what makes the area such a magnificent beast to appreciate; the impact of the past, the blast created by the sound of The Beatles still reverberating round the city over 50 years on, its echo enthusing the new generation of musicians, either born in the city or those that make their way from obscurer pastures, that keep making sure that Liverpool retains its place as the holder of song writing love.

Paul John Walker, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool. full post

(440 words, 1 image, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Eleanor Nelly, Liverpool. April 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

If Paradise is half as nice as Liverpool on sunny but freezing cold day then to be honest it can only be enhanced by the sound of one of the city’s daughters being heard in the centre of the main shopping area and being so entrancing that she could be heard at either end of the main street and possibly the echo reverberating all the way to Nashville where she was going to spend the next week on the next step of her music career.

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool. full post

(447 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cal Ruddy in Liverpool. April 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

If there is a gentleman to admire in this world, a young man of stature and beaming smile at all life has to throw at him, then a photo fit arrangement of the face would surely have the very likeness of Cal Ruddy attached to it. The same facsimile would also urge anyone close by enough to hear him take on the acoustics of an indoor or outdoor arena to revel in the artist’s work, to realise that to be at the very start of a flourish is only to regret not being there before the guitar was ever picked up and see the first signs of intrigue that blossomed in its early infancy.

Cal Ruddy, Gig Review. Paradise Street Stage, Liverpool. full post

(506 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)