Author Archives: admin

Roger McGough/ Royal Philharmonic 10/10 Ensemble. Summer With Monika. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Poetry and music give the same sense of hope and beauty to which arguably nothing else made by our own minds and creative souls, save an artist’s delicate touch or an actor’s soliloquy, can stand up to in comparison. Combine them, join them at the hip and something truly magical happens, it can feel like seeing the stars for the first time, watching a waterfall cascade over thousands of years of rocks and rubble which have been shaped by time and patience or even the wide eyed wonder of a child realise that the world is there to be explored. In nature the moment is forever, in the words of one of Britain’s finest poets of the last one hundred years, it is a spectacle that makes your heart glow.

Roger McGough/ Royal Philharmonic 10/10 Ensemble. Summer With Monika. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Pippin, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Chris Walsh, Pete Fendall, Matthew Sheffield, Tom Loughlin, Steph Scrutton, Heather Burns, Eilish Mulvihill, Thomas Wiggins, Eugene Chong, Megan Key, Andrew Abrahamson, Kate Rugen, Andy Walker, Lizzie Paes, Charlotte Wilson, Steph Longmuir, Lily Maketansky.

Musicians: Josie Conti, Mark Newberry, Amy Fazakerley, Holly Burrows, Abigail Morris, Chloe Farrington, Tom Crowley, Xana Davies, Joe Barnes, Laura Copestake, Ben Dyer, Jonny Knight, Luke Thomas.

Pippin, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: A Brittle Thread. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Killian Scott, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Joseph Mawle, Jonas Armstrong, Lydia Wilson, Anna Burnett, Matthew Lewis, Ian Pirie, Ellie Haddington.

Society hangs by A Brittle Thread and when it is pulled the whole fabric that has been built up, cherished by some, loathed by others, indifferent to many to whose lives are just about the right side of desperate, when that thread is pulled, it can come crashing down. Since the days that Queen Victoria first sat on her throne, many have tried to pull that strand, some have been part of the so called elite or the institution themselves but somehow it remains, for now, intact; threadbare, wearing thin and scraggy but nonetheless still intact.

Ripper Street: A Brittle Thread. Television Review. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Warm Water Skies.

There is a tent under the flyover,

its green membrane door,

old and plastic,

flaps and coughs,

stuttering for a memory,

grasping at the once former etiquette of a visitor

calling at a friend’s house

without prior announcement,

the heavily and obvious cleavage

driven and the naughty never punished

stares of the early morning milk delivery

and the picture postcards

of a long dead era, no milk today,

no festival date by mistake

with a song of one hitting the high notes

and the lifting silver rusted pegs

Warm Water Skies. full post

(133 words, estimated 32 secs reading time)

Rotten Borough England.

No electorate voted,

yet money changed hands,

grubby back street pilfer

and a bomb waiting to explode

on the streets, ticking down

in Rotten Borough England.

There is a misplaced May Queen

out of her depth as she runs around the poles,

kicking other children out of her way

or bribing their parents

to do as she hopes to say,

a small innocuous pay rise of a few percent,

whilst sorry nurse, there is a food bank for you

here in Rotten Borough England.

Rotten Borough England. full post

(234 words, estimated 56 secs reading time)

In The Millennial Dome, Theatre Review. Fredericks, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alex Ferguson, Geraint R. Williams.

Much is made of the Millennial, to some this group of people who have come into the world after the nihilism and cynicism of Generation X are to be seen with a sneer and not so positive attitude or recommendation appearing on the corners of the mouths of those who came after the end World War Two, the so called Baby Boomers, and those to whom the Counter Culture was not just grasped for but willingly so. However, rather than the strident pessimism of the Generation X and the awkward suspicion of the baby boomer, for those immersed in the unhinged times of the 21st Century, being In The Millennial Dome is perhaps the hardest times of all, and those who fight within should be applauded rather than condemned.

In The Millennial Dome, Theatre Review. Fredericks, Liverpool. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

A Strong Word With Time.

 

There is always the moment, dear Time

in which I find that our mutual bond,

is caught between disrepair and the mime

of enjoyment, that we show each other how fond

we are of each other; the lie as we hold hands

and race against the tide you put before us

as they wear down the cliffs of the mind and lands,

crumbling, the path disappears without much fuss,

least of all from me, for I have no hold on Time

I have no control over its actions or accomplishments

A Strong Word With Time. full post

(156 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Greg Russell, Inclined To Be Red. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are colonies of bees that swarm all over the land in search of such richness, the flower that supplies the seeds for the recipe of the finest honey and the way it adds a slight golden hue to the endeavour of the day’s work; nobody has told them they that to be seen as super productive if front of their demanding queen, all they have to do is listen to the sound of Greg Russell’s debut solo album, Inclined To Be Red, and the elixir of life will be theirs for the taking.

Greg Russell, Inclined To Be Red. Album Review. full post

(406 words, 1 image, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Robin Trower, Time And Emotion. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are times in life when Time and Emotion are necessary answers to the question, What Was I Really Worth To You?, in the case of the audience and musician relationship there should be only one reply but it is one that can be disguised by arrogance and the dismissive thought of when one or the other once cool partners becomes disheartened by the appeal or the pre-requisite of love.

Robin Trower, Time And Emotion. Album Review. full post

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

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, Lay It On Down. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

They say that life is a journey, that every moment is filled with ability to take a pencil out of your coat pocket, find a clear page in a notebook and consider the achievement of crossing over the bridge, of metaphorically scaling the height of something as tall and monumental and as historic as the Louisiana State Capitol Building or navigating the mighty Sabine River; life is a journey, life demands that anything you believe notable should be written about and above all you should Lay It On Down for others to conjure and wish to experience.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, Lay It On Down. Album Review. full post

(417 words, 1 image, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)