Author Archives: admin

Darrel Treece-Birch, No More Time. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It is always a bonus in life when you come across an artist who is more than willing and able to embrace the Progressive genre with ease and the dedication necessary to make it work, make it sing as if a group of angels had formed together to create a band after hearing the luminaries of the day give pleasure to millions.

Adam Rowe, Comedy Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It takes courage to get up on stage and bare your soul at the best of times. It takes the will to be seen as different, to know how to be taken for something novel and distinctive that makes people want to come and watch you perform; everybody has a talent in this world, it is to understand the way in which it is sold that will mark you out as fresh and interesting to watch.

R.I.P. V.H.S.

Rest in Peace,

dear old V.H.S video recorder,

your life was one given

in service of those to whom

staying in was an anathema

and the pause button,

for whatever their reason,

be it grainy, dirty or just

frequently needing the loo

during a good film

or quickly taped soap opera

as the promise

of a night out at the pub with no

strings attached became a modern

necessity.

 

Farewell and thank you

for being able to tape Doctor Who

Alistair Savage, Alone With History. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

History is such that it not only repeats itself, it has a beautiful and recurring habit of repeating itself till it becomes a cause for celebration and rememberance. History is never dead, unlike many subjects one may be taught at school, history is full of possibilities, the what if scenario much beloved of the anarchic thoughtful student, the plotting of random, separate events to a juncture where they meet, explode and ricochet into a thousand strands; history breathes, history lives and is the mother of all our futures. No matter what you cannot find yourself truly Alone With History.

Gillian Frame, Pendulum. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Pendulum is never still, it keeps going back and forth like a violin bow on heated strings or as steady as a pulse at rest, always ticking, always marking off time and nibbling away at the seconds between experiences, it only takes the randomness of it actually being progressively slowed and forcibly stopped for it to be missed and the pulse to be eulogised over. It is in the cheerful domain of that eulogy into which Gillian Frame pauses and then lets rip in a flurry of excitement, poise and grace; like a Pendulum she is ever present in the thoughts and listened to with ease.

A Cornish Man’s Lament For Scotland.

Please take me back there

For my blood is cold without its warmth,

The feel of the fire

And the majestic stag heads fixed sight

High on the wall.

 

Please take me back there,

Through the mists and open rain,

The taste of a forgotten whisky,

In my mouth, let me feel the close heather

And the sound of a violin by the hearth.

 

Please take me back there,

For I am incomplete without her,

I am lost in the mountains

Honey Island Swamp Band, Demolition Day. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The psyche and the brain is so strong, its ability to observe and absorb so much that in times of desperation and heartache it can turn something so terrible, so unimaginably horrific, into a triumph; it is in the ever dependable spirit that the sub-consciousness revels in the chance to stand with honour, no matter just how bad the situation that had been survived was.

How Could You Not Love Danny La Rue.

How could you not love Danny La Rue,

the last man in a dress

to outshine the also rans, in high heels,

stockings and large expensive wigs,

taught several how to relish in the glamour

of their existence and others how to embrace

that not everything in life is black, white

and as bright and vibrant as a child’s colouring book

when they learn to draw outside of the margins;

how could you not love Danny La Rue.

 

How could you not love Dorothy Gale,

Mark Harrison, Turpentine. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is in the simplicity of music that many battles are fought and won, the everyday alignment of words and images in a harmony that just catches the ear in a motion of peace and the result is that life can viewed as not being so bad; verging on pure, wholesome and more interesting than can be appreciated when revelling in self doubt and unjustified melancholy.

Black Foxxes, I’m Not Well. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

As a society, as a civilisation, we are doing better when it comes to the thought of helping those with any type of mental health issue, yet still we can be judged for not doing enough, that we don’t take seriously the muted cry for help, the culture of public opinion that can be awkwardly poured over by the media and uncared for by the ignorant.