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Under No Illusion.

The old lady of Rock and Roll

clears her throat,

smiles benignly to the audience,

a sense

of sorrow in her face

and as she is about to give

her final rendition,

her glorious epitaph to a worthwhile

dream, the Thunderstruck

and those with Big Balls

in jumps a man

instead

who can’t sing a note

but carries on the illusion

to the sound of guns

not cannons…

A Rose that falls

so desperately low

does not salute the worthy,

Happy And Complete.

Normal,

who would want

to ever wish

themselves

to be stuck in that

frame of mind and desperate soul;

why be normal when you can be odd,

unique,

completely original

with just the attachment to the rest

being that you love them.

Why can’t you be normal

I was once asked,

why can you be like A,

because S is such a more interesting

letter I thought,

curvy, fluid, rounded,

not fully like an O,

but then

I wouldn’t want to be that complete.

Graham Nash, This Path Tonight. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The path taken alone can either be one filled with wonder or one that leads to a dark place, one that is filled with promise and the objective of new beginnings or the solitary trail that is hindered by vines, haunting memories and sad reflection, both though lead to a certain desire, one that is unyielding and creatively relentless.

Eliza Neals, Breaking And Entering. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It may be considered unlawful but to love Eliza Neals’ new album Breaking and Entering is to know that out there in the land of Blues the flag is forever being flown and with great pride by the women of the genre.

The Jungle Book (2016), Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Neel Sethi, Ritesh Rajan, Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o, Giancarlo Esposito, Christopher Walken, Garry Shandling, Brighton Rose, Jon Favreau, Sam Raimi, Russell Peters, Madeline Favreau.

There are remakes of films in which the audience should always ask the question, why did they do this, what point does it serve, what on Earth did they do that was any different? The feeling of a sacred bond between cinema and film lover being shattered by the gnawing pain that it comes down to money and conceit, never an easy feeling to shake off; however, in the live action remake of one of Disney’s finest films, The Jungle Book is a film of absolute beauty and fine film craft and much of it comes down to Jon Favreau direction and flag waving cause.

Eye In The Sky, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman, Richard McCabe, Barkhad Abdi, Jeremy Northam, Monica Dolan, Iain Glen, Babou Ceesay, Phoebe Fox, Aaron Paul, Faisa Hassan, Aisha Takow, Armaan Haggio, Gavin Hood, Ebby Weyime, Lex King, Andrew Ahula, Ali Mohamed.

There are many reasons in which to take Eye In The Sky for a simple film about choice, its after effects and the consequences of decision; there are many reasons in which to understand that sometimes the greater good is served by the action of several bad and potentially evil people being taken out and one good person losing their life because of it; what it doesn’t prepare you for is the harrowing nature in which some decisions are formed.

Heaven’s Above.

I saw a sun explode,

obliterate in the night sky

and whilst nobody

else saw it at that moment,

I knew that worlds would end.

 

Somewhere deep I felt

the hundreds of thousands

of possible deaths,

across millions of light years

and I trembled at the fragility

of a single life taken

at dawn

just within the blink

of a savage’s eye,

murder by celestial means; death

decreed by sunlight fading thousands

of years ago.

 

I see a distant sun explode

Moggies The Mewsical, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Lesley Butler, Maximillian Chase, Peter Grant, Susan Hedges, Samuel Raymond Heller, Mark Lacey, Edwina Lee, Steve Macfarlane, Robert Southworth, Peter Turner, Ozzie Yue.

Life on Lark Lane is purr-fect for the Moggies, everything they could ask for, all they desire, is there to be enjoyed. All the furry feline’s nine lives are spent doing what cats do best, taking a stroll through the park, fine dining, watching the world go by with good friends and the only blot on the social calendar is having to deal with the squirrels, who are to be avoided just because they’re nuts.

Last Name Applicable.

Silence

and hands on heads,

no talking

whatsoever

and I do not

want to hear a

peep

out of you,

any of you,

till you learn some manners…

Our arms outstretched

having mastered the art

of class room sign language

by the time we were eight

and the deflection of the hammered down

metal measuring device

across the bare biting knuckles,

scrapped skin

bleeding as the monstrous

and over-zealous uncrowned ruler

struck again and again

and the headmaster would be lethal

Welcome To Paradise Road, Theatre Review. Page To Stage Festival. Small Cinema, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Sarah Maher, Emily Heyworth, Alun Parry.

If Paradise was half as nice…we would probably sleep in our beds not with worry but with comfort, not with concern but with joy and certainly not with the idea that at any given time in a world of seven billion souls were we being watched, every move undertaken scrutinised and studied, dissected just in case of any misappropriation of feelings or of possible conflict with the state. If paradise was half as nice then writer Brian Coyle would have no need to write a play that gripped the soul and gave it steely resolve to not allow the world to come down to this Pinter-esque dystopia.