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Bec Hill Caught On Tape, Comedy Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Bec Hill

It will be the last time that the Liverpool Comedy Festival will be housed in the Unity Theatre before it begins its major refurbishment at the beginning of next year, and leading us into the festival is acclaimed Australian comedian Bec Hill. After making the finals of the Raw act competition in her native country and wining the Barry Award for best show in Edinburgh 2014, this comedian has gathered quite a following with her quirky style of comedy.

Bec Hill Caught On Tape, Comedy Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(356 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Sophie Ramsay, The Seas Between Us. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It often only takes a gentle reminder, the sway of a musician’s performance to remember what is deep in your bones and in your soul, that the infectious delight they spread by performing music that is heritage, a long and distinguished inheritance that outweighs anything that comes from the banal and repetitively dull, is something that will stir the conscious and play havoc with the heart.

Sophie Ramsay, The Seas Between Us. Album Review. full post

(386 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Airbourne, Breakin’ Outta Hell. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The feeling is either force fed into you or if you are fortunate then it is Airborne, it comes down from seemingly above, like the nectar of the gods, the music infecting you in the only way that Rock and Roll, the heaviness in the metal, should or can, with no fighting the inevitable, through the medium of the largest, most clearest speaker and with overflowing hope in your heart that a band can match the likes of AC/DC in their heyday or at least divert your attention from the faltering stutter that the genre persists in having in Britain and America; a group that can be seen visibly seen and audibly Breakin’ Outta Hell.

Airbourne, Breakin’ Outta Hell. Album Review. full post

(405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Nathan O’Hagan, The World Is [Not] A Cold Dead Place. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Humanity has never been so well connected, so informed of what is going on in the world or the possibilities within it and yet day by day, each passing moment on the clock, someone finds anger, resentment, the reason to start pulling away from society and withdrawing into a world which is safer, clean and with less chance of finding their thoughts tipping over the edge. It is arguably an issue that stems from having to deal with the perceived lacking of understanding, the social anxiety, the modern day disease that comes with no cure, the malaise of knowing that world is as heavily and royally screwed as you imagine.

Nathan O’Hagan, The World Is [Not] A Cold Dead Place. Book Review. full post

(534 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Wires Crossed.

I could hear the sound

of another stilled conversation

beginning despite our closeness

for three quarters

of our lengthy lives;

“You only call me when you are melancholic

these days”, she shuffled the words

off her tongue as if she was slowly

delivering a speech

long prepared, long practised,

yet short of meaning, for I refused

to retort with blind obedience,

“You only call me when you are drunk”.

It was my fault for going sober,

kicking the one thing that brought

our pain together and gave us collateral

Wires Crossed. full post

(162 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)

Shakespeare, His Wife & The Dog, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre Studio, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sally Edwards, Philip Whitchurch.

The final moments of anyone’s life, the darkest night before the inevitable dawn, nobody knows what is said when it is discussed in private, when it is between two people who have been married for so long but age, infirmity of spirit and distance between the souls makes the journey one that is poignant and ultimately one filled with regret and doubt.

Shakespeare, His Wife & The Dog, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre Studio, Liverpool. full post

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

Buns!

She looked at me

with seduction in her eyes,

the rolling pin

clasped firmly in her hands

and the taste of yeast in the air,

hanging desperately in the clouds

of flour-ing current abandon,

“May I interest you in having a good feel

of my rock hard buns?”, she asked

with the faint whisper of suggestion

lavishly drawing themselves

across her ruby red painted lips.

As her eyes fell upon

the packet of crumpets

I held between my thumb

and forefinger,

I vowed,

Buns! full post

(97 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)

Ships On The River.

Still flows the river, on the ebbing tide

I’ve watched those ships come and go

since I was a child

Still flows the river. Each and every day

I’ve watched those ships on the river

Coasters and tankers, waved them on their way

The River flows out to the estuary

Red and green buoys keep the channel safe

Seagulls follow the leaving ships

For flotsam and jetsam in their propeller wake

At a rate of knots they pass the Mersey bar

Then it’s out on to the Irish Sea

Ships On The River. full post

(201 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)

What I Remember When I Look At Your Hands.

Lift your Cornish head,

let that Tamar heart, Saltash

spirit, a rememberance

of all that you have mastered

fill your mind, for all

you have spoken in volumes,

in tenderness and all you have taught,

remind you that no matter

what I could achieve,

it pales

into insignificance to

the love in your heart;

may you always be there to guide,

for without that light

I am lost.

 

Ian D. Hall 2016

Permanent link to this post (75 words, estimated 18 secs reading time)

King King, Live. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is a huge difference between being ready for the studio and being born for the stage, one can thrill the senses, the other washes over them, taking them on a ride that stops the heart, makes it require the sweet recovery of a frontman versed in the knowledge that live music is not about treating the symptom but improving the soul to live and cheer the sound from the wooden stage.

King King, Live. Album Review. full post

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