I chose life
many times,
pulling back from the brink
on a couple of occasions,
choose to be who I am
rather be someone I am not…
I chose washing machine, after washing machine
after one domestic appliance after another
and still I hammer them into the ground,
I choose not to own many
material items, never been swayed by a name
but always refused to anything made by Sharp
in the house as it would engender support
for Manchester United, I choose to not do that
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is the pulse of electricity, the chords that beat and ravage the unwary visitor to the point where they think of nothing more than delving into the back catalogue of the artist, of immersing themselves completely into the era of bonhomie and interest in what else the world has to offer. A time before time, for the older fans a memory to hold onto, for the younger, perhaps less versed in the cycle of the live performance, a message to be at one with the power of one of Rock’s finest.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The North East of England is one that for many years, decades, had the same sense of enforced isolation thrust upon it as cities such as Liverpool by the alleged powers that be down in the Westminster Village; if it produced something viable, if it contributed to society by being something other than suits and great swathes of money that could be generated at the pressing of an electronic key, then to those entrenched inside the Palace of Westminster, it held no significance.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Life is a delicate balance between the angels urging you on as they sit on your shoulders and the soft whisper of anarchy that resides in your soul, the game they play between them, the constant tussle of good and drama is a balancing act that many find tipping too much in certain directions.
Whether you listen to the spirit in your ear or the beauty in your soul, A Delicate Game is forever being played out and it one that has to be enjoyed, to be taken by the muscle that hides away shyly underneath the ribcage, and revelled in, for whilst it may be considered A Delicate Game, the rules are ever changing and free from rigidity.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Rarely does the accordion get the measure of admiration that it so richly deserves in the music sphere; it is an instrument that perhaps seen as unsexy, not cool, one that harks back to a time before the glamour of the electric guitar took on the world and was smashed into pieces by Pete Townshend on speakers that would never sound the same again.
Little by little,
it, for it
deserves no other name,
eats away at me, stripping bare
my resolve and my will,
my own mind, my thoughts
of which I knew I was right
even when others treated me like dirt,
my apologies, sincere, full of self loathing
because I had hurt someone…
little by little it is being sapped away
and in it, I hate.
I hate what it is doing to my body,
I hate the small changes
the blood appearing in my piss,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Anton Lesser, Sean Rigby, Dakota Blue Richards, James Bradshaw, Sheila Hancock, Sara Vickers, Alex Mann, Simon Meacock, Caroline O’Neill, Natalie Burt, Michael Pennington, Joanna Horton, Jane Whittenshaw, Chris Coghill, Emily Forbes, Grahame Fox.
It can never be too much of a coincidence that in times of deep disharmony, of scaremongering and deep fear biting at the ankles of those immersed in watching world events, that a television drama, even of the murder/crime genre, can take you back to the roots of the nuclear power debate and show just how close such thinking can wreck the environment and kill thousands of people if there was an accident or act of sabotage.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The Queen of British Blues, the undoubted reigning monarch playing the guitar as if it was permanently attached to her, never letting go, never surrendering the pinnacle in which she has rightly attained; this is the realm of Joanne Shaw Taylor, a woman of creative Blues and the Queen of the Birmingham Town Hall.
A train of Jackdaws
hopped on stiletto claw on board
the fifteen forty out of Wolverhampton,
bob tails waggling, beaks opening with wild
inquisitive shrills,
their voices
displaying nothing but the search for worms
in the dirt, the mud a step too far
for the preening old birds
with florescent feathers,
the odd battle scar where the edges were ripped
as they tussled and tore at life…
Finding water
unpalatable, the inexhaustible selfie
drags itself once more into existence
and the high pitched squeal of bird like delight
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Kathryn Chambers, Tom Platt, Vikki Earle, Tom Cavendish, Danny Fahey, Lauren Molyneux, Liz Blake, Joey Wishwell, Alec Walters.
Noises Off is one of those gems of a production that an audience can never be introduced to enough, a true blend of British stoicism in the face of absolute charade, a play that revels in its mayhem and one that if you haven’t laughed at during spells doom for British theatre; in much the same way that the ravens learning they can leave the Tower of London would spell the end of centuries tradition, so to if not laughing at arguably one of the great comedies of all time would cause a rip in the curtain of the English language.