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When We Are Married, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. (2016).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Kat Rose-Martin, Luke Adamson, Sophia Hatfield, Mark Stratton, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Adrian Hood, Sue Devaney, Steve Huison, Kate Anthony, Lisa Howard, Matthew Booth, Barrie Rutter, Zoe Lambert, John Gully, Andy Hall.

Mr. J. B. Priestley never fails to deliver, even if there are those out in the dark who fail to get the nuance of the times and denounce the clever introspection the playwright had on British Society and making it look back on its own peculiarities and diminishing importance on the future. Whereas the epic An Inspector Calls is very much in the calm outraged camp, the heated tongue of a barracking old outdated ways of thought, his classic drawing room comedy When We Are Married is firmly in the chaotic tranquillity mode and it is one that never loses its heart, especially not in the hands of the superb Northern Broadsides.

When We Are Married, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. (2016). full post

(484 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Standing Out.

Standing out

before the crowd

is so very unnatural to me,

always unique, a favourite singer

once said I was the oddest man

He knew,

yet I am not a natural performer,

safer in the shadows,

I write in the dark,

it is for others to shine

and for me to capture their spirit

yet sometimes I poke my mind

out into the open rain,

pouring like a melted mirror

and imagine the applause

for a single moment, the poem congratulated…

yet,

Standing Out. full post

(99 words, estimated 24 secs reading time)

Johnny Coppin, All On A Winter’s Night. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Christmas has a horrible habit of feeding many addictions, of allowing the schmaltz and the more commercial, the more consumed side of the festive period to be seen in all disturbing glory. It is hard not to be cynical about the time of year when so many people are either left alone or in want of conversation, a roof over their heads or something to eat; it is the time of year that can bring out the very worst in people…and thankfully the absolute best, the most beautiful in humanity, it is a credo that Johnny Coppin adheres throughout his sincere and wonderful arranged album All On A Winter’s Night.

Johnny Coppin, All On A Winter’s Night. Album Review. full post

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

The Day I Narrated W.H. Auden On The Radio.

It was an honour

to have been on the radio, one that might

never be repeated,

yet

for a short while, for the Time

it took the Earth to breathe

in and out,

shallow breaths, wandering planetary mind,

I sat in a studio with a microphone in front of me

and whispered into the unseen void,

the space between radio waves

and read with privilege

the words of W.H. Auden;

I stopped the clocks in my own world,

and paused, emotion, surrounded by four beautiful women,

The Day I Narrated W.H. Auden On The Radio. full post

(117 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

Ellyn & Robbie, Skywriting With Glitter. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

To the memory of all the great poets, the scribes with no forethought of fame or fortune, whose only reward it may have been was to get the words out of their heads, to let them finally depart their minds, to this end Ellyn Maybe and Robbie Fitzsimmons can only be seen as honouring, dedicating themselves to the cause of poetry and in their album Skywriting With Glitter, they truly take on the words with absolute sincerity of spirit and fashionable beauty.

Ellyn & Robbie, Skywriting With Glitter. Album Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Jack Taylor, Blood Cross. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Iain Glen, Siobhán O’Kelly, Jack Monaghan, Elva Trill, Alan McKee, Ross McKinney, Shane Robinson, Lalor Roddy, Killian Scott, Sinead Watters.

To take and consider revenge is the point where lives become meaningless, that you may as well take the whole Human Race with you in a blaze of remorseless fury for the want of practising the harder emotion of forgiveness. To want revenge is natural, it is perhaps inherent in us all but to actually physically take a life for a sleight, for an accident which robbed you of someone you loved; the question being could you truly want to keep perpetuating the agony and pain just to satisfy blood lust.

Jack Taylor, Blood Cross. Television Review. full post

(452 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Bicester.

I never appreciated you

till it was too late

and now

Bicester

I do pine for you

on occasion, every other day

in which thoughts of spending my Monday morning

developing the two finger shuffle, Progressive

Rock gods in favour of Religious Education

in which I had no care, vinyl Heaven

for all eternity as King Crimson looked down

upon my young and eager tastes

and the sometimes berated Ian Dury album would find

away in panties, sex and drugs and rock n’ roll

Bicester. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Metallica, Hardwired to Self-Destruct. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Arguably Metallica will go down in history as the kings of American Metal, if not contenders for the band that Empires quake and fall for, yet for all the blazing guns, the screams of red hot pokers as they clash against the sabre, the sword and the caressed steel, there was undoubtedly a period in which some of the fan base felt lost in the group’s company. Following on from the Black Album and right through to the debacle that was St. Anger, there was a general feeling of unease in the air, it cut through the swathes of vinyl, through the past honours and threatened to disable the moorings of one of the finest music ships ever created.

Metallica, Hardwired to Self-Destruct. Album Review. full post

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

How To Hurt The Invisible.

Today I will wrap a horse hair blanket around me

and let it sting that patch of constant weeping eczema

whilst I find a way to tie myself in knots

and put my soul at risk;

it is never hard to find a way to hurt yourself,

it saves time letting others do it for you.

I will sit either in my leather chair, as cracked and damaged as I

or I will find a way to make the third stair

as uncomfortable as possible, make it creak

How To Hurt The Invisible. full post

(289 words, estimated 1:09 mins reading time)

Dr. Hook Starring Dennis Locorriere, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is in the flourish of the performance, the smile upon an artist’s face when they can be seen, witnessed by all, to be having just a good a time as their audience, the equality of art is assured and in the end it doesn’t matter a jot who the performer is, what matters is that the love between crowd and musician is real, complete and without end.

Dr. Hook Starring Dennis Locorriere, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(510 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)