One of the great albums of 2016 so far has come from the Lincolnshire based band The B-Leaguers. The ear-catching and phenomenal Death Of A Western Heart is not only a truly fine and well produced album but it reminds people that music is not just confined to the hearts of places such as Liverpool, Birmingham and London but is actually something so intrinsic to society that it is to be celebrated anywhere and at any time.
Author Archives: admin
Alexandra’s Duck Earphones.
It was the duck earphones
that permanently endeared me to your soul,
bright yellow, water resistant and plastic
feathered…I saw you semi naked in a mirror, steam
driven as you changed for a party
at a fellow student’s house and I closed my eyes
quickly, snap shut, blocked my ears and
forgot to breathe until you tapped me
on the shoulders and enquired to what
I was hiding from, too old to admire
but young in heart to love you.
The duck earphones fitted like a glove,
The Buffalo Riot, Pale Blue Oceans. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The tenderness of excitement is one that can only be held at bay for so long, eventually you have to give in to temptation, you have to open the box and peer, like a smiling, giddy Pandora, into the abyss and let the magic out. It is a magic, a substance of expression into which falls from the sky with proud and glad tidings the archetype of great bands The Buffalo Riot and their album Pale Blue Oceans.
Eric Clapton, I Still Do. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *
There can be no doubt that the music world owes Eric Clapton a huge and honest debt of thanks for what he has brought to the world in the many decades he has been plying the standard of Blues and Rock; without his influence many musicians would not have the rich and varied form of expression that makes the sound that surrounds us so rich and enticing.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: An Interview With Alison Green. (2016).
Spending time with a musician is almost like spending time with a favourite member of your family, when the time comes that they have to leave, it can be a wrench to the soul; especially if they are one that captivates with such distinction on stage, if they have a persona that just radiates cool.
Canterbury’s Alison Green, or her musical alter ego Whisky Ginger Johnson, is one such musician. Firmly entrenched in the idea of the Progressive, even if she doesn’t quite realise it, Alison Green is a firm favourite of the I.P.O. A woman whose music straddles the Canterbury set with ease and to whom as soon as you listen to the stories that hide, camouflage themselves, only to appear as chronicles of a life so well lived, so endearing, that you cannot help but fall in love with them.
Wallander, A Lesson In Love. Television Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Jeany Spark, Clive Wood, Kitty Peterkin, Harry Hadden-Paton, Terrance Hardiman, Barnaby Kay, Karen Gledhill, Joe Claflin, Cecile Anckarsvard, Richard McCabe, Marie Critchley, Glenn Doherty, Hugh Mitchell, Thomas Coombes, Felicia Womack, Miranda Pleasence, John Lightbody, Boel Larsson, Ann Bell, Marlene Sidaway, Mia Goth, Robin Gott.
There is a demon that stalks all of us, it will eventually claim us all at one time or another and as it sits waiting patiently for us to succumb, the only question worth asking is what form will it take?
Ripper Street: Edmund Reid Did This. Television Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jonas Armstrong, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Anna Burnett, Charlene McKenna, Lucy Cohu, Matthew Lewis, Anna Koval, Finnion Duff Lennon, Matthew Lewis, Brandon Maher, Kahl Murphy, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Lynn Rafferty, Annabell Rickerby, Killian Scott, David Threlfall, David Wilmot.
There are some killers that just defy explanation, no matter if it is in the blood of real life or the fear of literature and media intrusion, there are killers, murderers, people to whom such depths are crawled that the greatest anomaly, the strangest and unfathomable desire, just makes them such interesting case studies.
I Fancy A Week In The English Sun.
I fancy a week just sat in the English sun,
perhaps in Scarborough or Whitby,
the beauty of the timeless
only peppered by the taste of chips
and fish basked gently in beer batter
crisp and juicy and the sound of seagulls
from the top of the Captain Cook
and the sound of cricket,
signalled through the haze and the brush
of leather upon a willow skin;
I fancy a week in English sun.
I fancy going deep rust, my skin
turning English pale
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Supplement. An Interview With Mark And Helen Luker (Fun Of The Pier).
The International Pop Overthrow is one event that shouldn’t be missed, regardless of where in the world founder and organiser David Bash takes it, it is a chance to come across the unexpected, the divine and the surprisingly brilliant.
The Cavern and the Cavern Pub have long had the honour of hosting Liverpool’s week of crowning new idols and loved musicians, of making new bands to admire and urge on. Amongst them is the fascinating duo of Helen of Mark Luker, or as they are better known as Fun of the Pier. It is a duo that gives an awful lot of pleasure on stage and one that really should have a bigger following.
Boo Hewerdine, Born. E.P. Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
To be Born is to have the world, to live and make the world take notice of you is to have existed and lived beyond the realms of expectation; it does truly depend on what you do with that Time that makes the space in between birth and the inevitable passing of the sunset, worthwhile.
For Boo Hewerdine, every day feels like re-birth, an exceptional talent that keeps giving pleasure and like a new born child, one that constantly and ultimately gives those who peer over the guitar like pram, a thrill to witness the growth and strength that is evident and cool.