I remember with absolute clarity
the moment you were born,
pacing outside like a father
from an old Pathe newsreel
or Ealing Comedy,
my life in black and white
as I chewed on nails,
too old fashioned to be
in the delivery suite,
was not the man’s place really.
I saw you very quickly, a blur,
a near painful remainder
that life can be cruel, fleeting, obstinate,
downright mean and spiteful,
as you were rushed past me
not breathing, blue,
you were leaving me destroyed.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The gentleness of the man holds him in high esteem with his audience, the nature of his craft, the talent for song writing and capturing the moment frame by frame takes him to a place where the crowd simply adore him; it is impossible when you watch Chris De Burgh perform live on stage to see anything but a sea of faces light up with expectation, no matter the day they have had, as soon as he takes to the stage and then grow with love and self esteem as the concert goes on.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The world needs Cast, like other bands from the Liverpool music arena, Cast are indelibly linked to a particular mood, a stream of conscious that cannot be denied or ignored; it is in the Liverpool heart, the acknowledgment that the world outside is rough, often insane and never complimentary to those who pour their heart and soul into making it a little brighter or even kinder. It is in that truth that bands such as Cast become important, because they at least see the rolling majesty and time eroding nature of the River Mersey and suggest that to fight back is the only thing that makes sense, that to be seen Kicking Up The Dust is one thing, what is needed is an actual sandstorm of enlightenment.
She offered me a trip,
a walking holiday through
Yorkshire and Durham,
as it was before they re-arranged the map,
following desolate moorland, and dead feathered friends
whose life had been cut short, and water stout
and fast.
I attribute the offer as folly now,
for we were to stray not far from the river
towards its inevitable end as it lolled
into the North Sea somewhere round Redcar,
Hartlepool and Middleborough,
I should have known that she would lie
to me,
a holiday walking the river,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Autobiographies are such that the times they are written in often depict how they will be received, the memoirs of a soldier who fought perhaps during a war might be lauded during the aftermath of that conflict but many years down the line might be considered as crass, demeaning or even insulting to the memory of the fallen, on both sides.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas, Kiran L. Dadlani, Mina Anwar, Ralf Little, Kalungi Ssebandeke, Kira Shah, Craig Gardener.
Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and your likely to have little time left in your life to worry about such matters as emotion, at least that is how it is presented by the excellent Merseyside writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce in the superb second story of the new series of Doctor Who.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Gemma Arterton, Sam Clafin, Bill Nighy, Jack Huston, Paul Ritter, Rachael Stirling, Richard E. Grant, Henry Goodman, Jake Lacy, Jeremy Irons, Eddie Marsan, Helen McCrory, Hubert Burton, Claudia Jessie, Stephanie Hyam. Michael Marcus, Gordon Brown, Patrick Gibson, Lily Knight, Francesca Knight, Clive Russell, Cathy Murphy, Emma Cunniffe.
It is not always about who has the best and the finest body of men to call upon, the biggest bombs or the most modern equipment that can win a war, it is sometimes, more often than not, about the one individual who can add something a little extra, the one who sees the picture in the theatre of war just a little differently and who can add the element of propaganda to the rallying call of the nation.
You used to put me on a train
departing New Street Station,
headlong through the day to Plymouth’s safe harbour.
I was safe
because I had you fighting my young battles with me,
and whilst I was not always appreciative
at the time, I never
forgot, I never allowed myself to fail
in your eyes and fought longer and harder
than I should have, just to never see
you disappointed in me.
It didn’t always work,
sometimes
I dishonoured your memory, sometimes I let you down
Illusion,
always sold as patriotism,
worse still when packaged
and stamped
by the Vicar’s daughter,
caught with her knickers down
and prepared to engage
in necrophilia
with the ghostly offspring of the grocer
and who is on the side
in thought
of a bitch whose mouth betrays
the evil in her heart;
this illusion we engage with
because it suits us, we keep just
on the side on respectability
because to sink further would betray
the fact that we like our two cars,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Alden Ehrenreich, Matthew Broderick, Martin Sheen, Hart Bochner, Candice Bergen, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Lily Collins, Steve Coogan, Alec Baldwin, Oliver Platt, Ed Harris, Paul Sorvino, Taissa Farmiga.
The story you don’t know is the one that is often the most factual, cinema has a way of unfolding the tale and only offering the sanitised version of someone’s life, the mistakes, they are erasable, the darkness, the redemption found, the eventual downfall, covered in a semblance of sepia toned grace; for in cinema the Rules Don’t Apply, most of the time they are made up on the spot and changed randomly.