Sheep Street never looked so good
as it did in the early May sun,
the spotlight from decades past
captured with almost boundless
enthusiasm from roof to roof
in which places from my childhood
have leaked away, have melted into nothing
more than history and tethered remains
of collective memory.
The record shop long gone,
Goble’s, along with Iain, vanished
into the ether, coffee shops by chain
replace the feel of something inward
and to be rejoiced
and as for the biggest killer
There are no flies on you,
for the moment,
just as there are no ties on me
no knot to choke me with
should that be your choice
in which to strangle, to suffocate,
to shift me from vision, no tie,
no fasten except the criss-cross
of emotions that we share, some that bond
with the same sensation of the first kiss
that two teenagers share in an open field
in secret but with all knowing
about it by the time
the final bell rings and clangs with rusty
I thought they were dead
as they slept in daylight hours,
vampire like with pale grim faces
and under stubble they lay.
Death would be a release
some might say, wrapped
in their own ivy, cheered by their own disease,
but as the underpass
feels the cool thunder of running traffic
and exhausts compassionately
spewing its own toxic hue
in the memories of those with eyes closed
and for us, those that walk on by
with either disgust in their eyes
or sadness under their taught cheekbones
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
When you have found yourself listening to a piece of music that leaves you feeling invigorated, refreshed and ready for the battle ahead, whilst simultaneously leaving the very best of thoughts, grace and boundless enthusiasm, then it is a piece of music to savour and cherish. For Thom Morecroft, the genial and certainly impressive import from the Midlands, his new E.P., After The Rain, is like finding out who Kenny Dalglish was after Liverpool signed him from Celtic or understanding just how good Lindsey Buckingham was after he first performed with Fleetwood Mac.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Will Smith, Harleyia Heffey, Adam Leyland, Chloe Ogburn, Phil Rayner, Murren McFarlane, Bryony Doyle, John Stephenson, Shannon Haugh, Dorcas Sebuyange, Ian Smith, Mikey Gordon, Jamie Forbes, Kate Bricknal, James Bibby.
There are just some people in the world to whom evil is not a strong enough word to describe them; that their very actions on this Earth are to be considered so vile, so despicable that it is impossible to show any remorse for them. To take them on as a character within a film or a play is almost to feel as if you are opening up a crack in life that should be left alone; however that then would detract from the story that must be told as a warning so others are prepared for the Footsteps In The Shadows.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Jonny Donahue, Paddy Gervers
Death is inevitable, the planet more or less will become more fragile and yes perhaps we have gone past the tipping point where extinction is possible, yet at the end of the day there is still time for comedy and satire; after all aren’t those who continue to put us in the mess we like to roll around in, worth it? The world may be on a collision course with the apocalypse, of irreversible climate change but there is still time to enjoy two men on stage take a light hearted but smack on look at what it actually means to be told The End Is Nigh
I don’t want to see a nation
I love tear itself apart in some
circus game, where the acrobats tumble
and where the ringmaster is but an illusion
to the real owner and stand by creators of the game,
the clowns waiting for their time
in the sun, the hideous ghoulish and rabid
fiends whose smile is painted on with glee
and self loathing despair. I hate clowns,
I hate clowns, they’re creepy fuckers
and they stick in the mind in anarchy
and whilst revolution and change is good for the soul,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
His name is etched in stone across the ages, from his native Catford to the having the world’s music lovers know him by sense of feeling and depth of character, he is the man who can make a guitar sound as if it is loved, adored and purr gently in the night by the fireside in contentment and gentle repose. In Robin Trower all things are possible because he doesn’t just play the guitar to make an audience listen; he plays it to make it weep, to make the crowd think and in all such things beauty is attained.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be, now we have the ability to gloss over the sepia and rose coloured times in which the past would have us believe was all that happened, that there was no bleak or feelings of disharmony or abandonment within society; that it was all a bad dream which we can forget and move on till the next time society and Time decide to take us apart.
There’s a taste of rubble in the air,
of the brick dust that an old house
in decline, stooping towards memoriam
and grave side recollections, of times when
the happiness and tired old peculiar
went hand in hand, that the walls become sensitive
to the slightest knock and the whisper of the gradual
and inevitable to come; it is in that taste of rubble,
of brick dust, hanging wires and a couch past its best
but hugged in the dead of night when sleep
evades the would be dreamer,