Author Archives: admin

Hannah James, Jigdoll. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Like all good journeys, Jigdoll starts with a kind of hush, the shadow of least expectancy and the haunting breath in the dark, the silence growing till finally the realisation hits home that something nurtured by the elements is about to be unleashed. Like the island at the centre of the world in The Tempest, it is a world populated by the unknown and the spectral, of the rising swell and the phantom cries of nature berating and beating its heart in time to the passing of each moment on the album.

Hannah James, Jigdoll. Album Review. full post

(399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Drawing A Blank.

I cannot remember your name,

I am sorry.

I remember your face

every time I close my eyes, I

have never forgotten you

but I cannot remember your name.

I know the first time I met you,

I can recall with ease the first song

I heard in your company,

and if you were a woman

I can remember the first kiss we may

have shared, that we felt possessed in its safety;

I strain though to summon up the memory

of your name and for that,

Drawing A Blank. full post

(116 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

Ged Thompson, Middle Earth Magic. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The ability of being able to believe, to have faith in something that might only exist in the fertile minds of children; is to hold onto life. Not a so called life where bills and the banality of day to day existence are allowed to punch you in the stomach, where they are allowed to chew away the imagination a little piece at a time, but the life in which faeries, goblins and the chance to live as a dragon should you wish; that is true belief and it is one so beautifully captured by Liverpool poet Ged Thompson in his incredibly presented book Middle Earth Magic.

Ged Thompson, Middle Earth Magic. Book Review. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

All Was Once Wells…

Alan Wells

was a hero of mine when I was younger,

when I first realised

what the Olympics meant,

what it could inspire,

what it could be

if not allowed to be dominated

by politics and cheats

or death’s unfavourable hand;

the dip

of the head at the line,

something I loved.

Nearly forty years on,

past the excuse of the biggest cheat

of them all, an athlete that destroyed

my faith, past vainglorious,

past deception and onto spectacle,

onto breathing legend and admiration

All Was Once Wells… full post

(130 words, estimated 31 secs reading time)

Cracked Tiles, Theatre Review. Spotlites, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Lorenzo Novani.

Just as other symbols of community seem to be disappearing from our streets and neighbourhoods, the local fish and chip shop is also in danger of becoming an outmoded and obsolete form of kinship that transcended class, age and wealth.

A trip to the chippy was for many the chance to catch upon the gossip and talk of the area, especially if they didn’t want to spend time in the public house, it was the place to eat cheaply but with respect and in the dark days of World War Two it was the only food source that wasn’t rationed. The local fish and chip shop seemed indestructible and yet as Lorenzo Norvani shows in his delightfully poignant production, Cracked Tiles, the days of the community enjoying such a valuable resource are fast approaching a critical juncture.

Cracked Tiles, Theatre Review. Spotlites, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016. full post

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

The South Afreakins, Theatre Review. Spotlites, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Robyn Paterson.

When you don’t feel safe in the area you have lived virtually all your life, do you try to change your location and begin again, be a stranger in another country, or do you try and change yourself, to try and feel the revolution that is going on around you and go with the flow? Either way you might lose something of yourself, something that makes you, you and it is not something you can ever regain.

The South Afreakins, Theatre Review. Spotlites, Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016. full post

(400 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Brazil, Theatre Review. New Town Theatre. Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Angus Chisholm.

The world is always on the edge of some war, some take over and the only constant in all of these merciless moments is the effect it has on the populace being bombarded and brutalised. The Olympics may dominate the news during this year’s Edinburgh Festival but for one artist, one play, the thought is very much on the use of language, the insanity of war and the apparent safety that might lay in Brazil.

Brazil, Theatre Review. New Town Theatre. Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2016. full post

(397 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Good Kids: On Tap, Theatre Review. Underbelly Med Quad, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2016.

Liverpool Sound & Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Tom Dowling, Kieran Ahern.

With over 3,000 shows to choose from at the Edinburgh Festival, it is easy to feel daunted by such variety. Not only does the festival include comedy and theatre it also showcases some of the most varied performers from around the world, from circus acts to physical theatre to opera and the spoken word. Comedy sketch shows are also in abundance and there is one duo who are back for a second year to try their luck at the one of the largest art festivals in the world.

Good Kids: On Tap, Theatre Review. Underbelly Med Quad, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2016. full post

(301 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

Stage Maid.

Was it wrong to believe

for a short while

that I could recapture a moment

in time,

fleeting perhaps,

the small gesture

of alluded art that I so desperately

wanted to be part of.

That to dream of standing

before you, the lonely virginal

player, steeped in the allure

of the greasepaint and the single

short monologue

in which to make

an entrance with,

to make people sit up

and take notice of,

was that ever so wrong.

Into drastic middle age, early death has been defied

Stage Maid. full post

(153 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Michelle Shocked, Gig Review. New Town Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Intimacy can sometimes come as a bit of a surprise when attending a concert, it can be a little daunting to see the performer’s eyes so close up, to be sat within a few feet of the fingers dancing on the strings and catching the reflected light from the stage all around you as if watching a shadow play; it is to be thought of daunting but one surely dispelled quickly and instead thought of as a privilege instead.

Michelle Shocked, Gig Review. New Town Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2016. full post

(495 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)