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Kicking Off, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Warren Brown, Greg McHugh, Alistair Petrie, Danielle Bux, Mark Bright, Geoff Hurst, Tim Major, Bailey Patrick, Jon-Paul Gates, Robbie Savage.

To many, football is a religion, it is the reason they get up in the morning, it is the devouring of knowledge, the talking point during the day and the bonding across the social strata, football is the motivation and the rationale but when it goes wrong, when the suffering of relegation is experienced, the humiliation of being the worst team possible, some might curse their own personal favourite deity; some might even consider ill will to the man in the middle who may have been the cause of the downfall of the gods, it might lead to the fan Kicking Off.

Kicking Off, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Francis’ Bacon And Eggs.

It was in the way he got off his chair

inside the café, the wind racing up

through the large alleyway

knocking the sign back and forth, the advert

for the all day breakfast, a small comedy

chicken with a wide brimmed Stetson,

the Midland’s answer to Foghorn Leghorn

holding a spatula, its feathers slightly

roasting away

and a pig with a creepy smile

and one trotter

out of proportion to the rest of the body

and wearing a flashy apron, emblazoned

with the words Francis’ Café,

Francis’ Bacon And Eggs. full post

(138 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

Lena Anderssen, Eagle In The Sky. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

You can never truly know someone unless they open up their heart to you. It doesn’t have to be through love, or through desire but through the simple action and undertaking of trust and faith in their words. No matter what you make think about them, no matter what you believe, there is so much they keep hidden and away from the prying eyes, arguably even of their best friend. To open up takes courage, to unlock the door and let the emotions have free reign and let them be seen for what they are is to be brave and in arguably one of the finest musicians to come out of the Faroe Islands, that bravery is exemplary.

Lena Anderssen, Eagle In The Sky. Album Review. full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Vitamin, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Studio Two has borne witness to many bands over the years, if not in the studio next door, then certainly on stage in the off dark recess of a room that has captured the imagination and the glow of satisfaction in the eyes of all who pass under the neon red sign warning that recording is in progress and the sound that can be heard up and down Parr Street.

Vitamin, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(369 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Kolumbus, Leave A Light On. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Promises are not so easily kept, not in a world where the pull of seven billion people are all crying out for time and attention; it is a world where many get left behind, where hope is only alluded to in dreams or the ending of a nightmare and into which the best offering of peace for the mind and spirit might be to Leave the Light On so that you can find your way out of the dark.

Kolumbus, Leave A Light On. Single Review. full post

(358 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Ripper Street: Some Conscious Lost. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, David Threlfall, Killian Scott, Matthew Lewis, Benjamin O’ Mahony, Anna Burnett, Anna Koval, Sonya Cassidy, Jamie Ballard, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Jon Øigarden, Daragh Kearney.

There was no greater sentence of dread to the poor of the East End of London, save transportation to the colonies, than to be told they were to be sent to the workhouse; that place where the even the lowest of hearts tried their level best to keep out of and to which the sometimes sadistic tendencies of those in charge was as criminal as any who might work the lunatic asylums of the day or even the evil at large that often preyed upon the weak and suffering.

Ripper Street: Some Conscious Lost. Television Review. full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Connor.

You came into this world,

full of hope and fragile beauty

and not breathing; panic in my heart,

alarm that something

was most terribly wrong

as the nurse ran out of the room

carrying a small delicate, my flimsy, boy

and I watched helpless as technical

help arrived and slowly, surely,

you gasped for air and you weren’t

as breakable I had imagined

for the longest minute of my life.

 

You decided to not breath again

when eating tea one night, in a rush,

Connor. full post

(232 words, estimated 56 secs reading time)

The Mousetrap, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Louise Jameson, Anna Andresen, Nick Barclay, Tony Boncza, Lewis Collier, Gregory Cox, Amy Downham, Oliver Gully.

Arguably Agatha Christie’s name will last in the annals of English Literature history as long as William Shakespeare’s and will always be as revered to her fans as the Bard of Stratford-Upon-Avon. It is easy to see why, the cold calculating pace of her mysteries, the beloved nature of two of her famous creations so entrenched in television’s grasp that they sell world-wide with ease and the secrecy installed in a play that might never see the light of day beyond the confines of theatre; it is to that end that Agatha Christie’s name will always be celebrated and whispered, the mistress of crime and the bogeyman all in one terrific role.

The Mousetrap, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(458 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

I’ve Lost My Tail.

I have lost my tail.

As bereft as that small blue donkey

with rolling eyes and world on hoof

demeanour, my tail, never truly secure

with that pin in my arse and a body

that people mistake for a piñata, knock the stuffing out

of me and in their eyes they see

sweets and papers fall to the floor,

not seeing the illusion that they

have kicked the guts out of me;

is it any wonder I have lost my tail

and the voice of slow desperation

I’ve Lost My Tail. full post

(244 words, estimated 59 secs reading time)

Mark Thomas: Trespass. Theatre Review, Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The evening might not, in spirit, have been as dramatic as the last time Mark Thomas performed at the Liverpool Playhouse, nothing as spontaneous as a fire alarm and a public meeting by the old bandstand on Williamson Square to get the comedy juices flowing. Yet the air of supreme command of the English language, of taking an audience down the path of playful anarchy is in itself one that catches the night as if being hunted down and paraded through the streets of the cities of the U.K. for its absurd notions that we have allowed our green and pleasant land to become a haven for business to tell us where we can and cannot walk.

Mark Thomas: Trespass. Theatre Review, Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)