I was never more astounded
in my young and carefree life
than on the day I witnessed
evolution in flight,
as the black mass
took to the Selly Park air
and shrouded the sun as one,
shimmering, splitting the heavens,
blowing my mind as I peered
into the cracks of the corporation
pavement of Manilla Road,
an ice cream slowly dripping
and making sticky fingers,
evolution in flight,
evolution with black angel wings,
as ants crawled, stuttered, their heartbeats
increased by sunshine and the call
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Christoph Waltz, Margot Robbie, Samuel L. Jackson, Sidney Ralitsoele, Osy Ikhile, Mens-Sana Tamakloe, Edward Apegyei, Antony Acheampong, Casper Crump, Adam Ganne, Simon Russell Beale, Djimon Hounsou, Miles Jupp, Jim Broadbent, Christopher Benjamin, Ben Chaplin.
It is arguably one of the most distinctive calls in the history of cinema, a simple cry of masculinity and dominance and yet one that is fuelled by the perversity of European culture making claims on the lives and heritage of Africa in the 19th and 20th Century. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan is rich in its story telling, if not in the very sentiment of abuse it was trying to dispel in his readers at the time.
We are the humourless children of Darth Vader,
stuck in a pattern
of self loathing and flowing envy,
the darkness seeping out
from the sore
we keep hidden, under layers
of guilt and delusion and the odd
pair of cartoon socks, one size
fits all and opinions we hope are the same;
we are the grave and grim,
the forbidding and the forbidden,
we are the humourless offspring
of Darth Vader.
We are the children of a deaf Batman
and the surprising talent of The Joker,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
The state on the edge of the world, from the end of land, one constantly under the pressure of fissures and the prospect of annihilation, one place never too far from the self appointed big one, California is a place in which dreams are hatched, made reality, loved and ultimately destroyed by greed and the need for constant re-invention.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 1/10
Life must be made of peaks and troughs, it cannot be all plain sailing, for where is the joy in steering a boat across a perfectly still body of water if you haven’t learned to manoeuvre it in storm tossed oceans; conversely where is the delight in living underground in the dark if you haven’t experienced a single day in the sunshine.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Luke Pasqualino, Ryan Gage, Alexandra Dowling, Hugo Speer, Tom Morely, Thalissa Teixeira, Fiona O’ Shaughnessy, MeerA Syal, Lily Loveless, Harry Melling, Philip Barantini.
A fool always lets themselves be known by their cravings for gold, the glimmer of the precious metal as it dazzles upon the finger, as it collects dust in a vault, some cannot ever have enough and some see it for what it is, the means to survive. It is always better surely to have none and lived than fall foul to the curse of Midas.
As a nervous teenage boy
I submitted the flesh
on my neck for you to place
your tongue against the pulse
of lingering, anxious excitement
and you my dear would kiss me gently
through dreams passing by
the agony of lazy summer days
of dying school memories.
Now when I think back, jumping in time
to the delicious feeling of being wanted,
being practised upon by calm
and relaxed women of the same
age and desires,
I thank my own personal deity
that I was brought up by
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Summer, in all its British damp and rain soaked glory, in all its burning one day haze, which with nostalgia over time becomes as sweat driven and lethargic as the one that hit the nation in ’76, long, luxurious and never ending, summer is only possible to dream about because festivals give the music lover hope and certain musicians always make sure they play in the same place each year, around the same time, to give thanks to their fans, the ritual is one of cool dynamic, of mutual thanks.
The world is on fire,
having simmered too long,
unable to cut off the fuel that drives
the hate, that steers and directs
the dislike and blows it up, makes mole
hills burst like Vesuvius, Earth tired worms
claw at the air and interesting times
are back in vogue once more.
The world is on fire, screaming
out injustice whilst having no plan
to purge those that place a spark
of Lucifer against the black sparkling dust,
extreme dislike turns to detest
turns to repulsion, turns the hatred clock
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Jo Bywater has been away from her own walk of life for too long, the dedication to helping others achieve their own goals, whether through collaboration or intense work ethic has not been lost in the appreciation of the adopted Merseyside singer/songwriter but it has meant that the local area has missed with much inevitable sadness Ms. Bywater’s own insightful lyrics and contribution to the acoustic scene.