Author Archives: admin

Disorder, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger, Paul Hamy, Percy Kemp, Zaid Errougui-Demonsant, Victor Pontecorvo, Michael Dauber, Franck Torrecillas, Chem Eddine, Phillipe Haddad, Jean-Louis Coulloc’h, Hubert Rollet, Rachid Hafassa, David Colombo, Rabia Elatache, Arthur Vercken, Serge Michel, Anais Couette, Christian Bianchi.

All films have potential, by their very nature they are there to entertain or even inform; some though are baffling to the point of unpleasantness, they do nothing but argue with themselves about their role and like a pair of lovers quarrelling over who last paid for a night out, the position of what could be beautiful is replaced by a dark intrusion and one that brings the film into the arena of the fundamentally objectionable.

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

(378 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. Write Blend, Waterloo.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are moments in a young musician’s life when the sound they create is not only stunning, it can make the die-hards and the cynical weep behind closed eyes and have them mutter that whilst music may have changed, it remains intact and an endearing presence in some.

In Eleanor Nelly, one of Liverpool’s bright young things, that presence is keenly felt and to admired, even when she is supporting someone different in a book shop in Waterloo. Being able to watch this fine musician up close and personal in amongst the books and rampaging taste of coffee and stirring tea was not only a singular pleasure but one that encapsulated the point of encouraging the young to strive for all they can; for dreams are soon too easily dashed if not nurtured and held on to.

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. Write Blend, Waterloo. full post

(378 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Maths Was Not The Answer.

Hunched over a Maths textbook,

not filling in Algebra equations,

refusing to bow down to going beyond

angles as they at least

were useful when playing pool

against Andy Bell in many

a Bicester public house,

the cover of the book

instead a hive of activity

in reprinting lyrics from memory

and my own tentative steps,

laborious, protracted and the topic

of conversation between headmaster

and pupil, between careers advisor and

stubborn boy who didn’t want

to anything but write, act and produce

Maths Was Not The Answer. full post

(155 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Worth The Long Road.

It has been a long road, diverting

along the way, works slowing me down,

to a crawl,

sometimes to a full stop,

never losing sight though of the objective,

to prove them wrong, to show

that a poetic verse or even just a rhyme

is not the same as taking the easy

way out, that I am not

a waste of space.

Ian D. Hall 2016

Permanent link to this post (68 words, estimated 16 secs reading time)

The Wonder Stuff, 30 Goes Around The Sun. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time can look you straight in the eyes and without blinking, without ever showing emotion, find a way to unnerve you, show you the colossal state of the Universe and the immensity of it all; then once it has taken you down several pegs it holds your hand, smiles deeply, kisses you on the cheek and allows you another turn around the Sun. It is the kind of benevolence, the deep rooted compassion and underlying Cosmos wake that awaits anyone who wants to seek out beauty in music and who knows they will find it in abundance in The Wonder Stuff.

The Wonder Stuff, 30 Goes Around The Sun. Album Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Maigret Sets A Trap: Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Rowan Atkinson, David Dawson, Shaun Dingwall, Lucy Cohu, Fiona Shaw, Rebecca Night, Aiden McArdle, Mark Heap, David Annen, Ian Bartholomew, Jessica Bay, Gillian Bevan, Heather Bleasdale, Christopher Bowen, Alexander Campbell, Beth Cooke, Leo Hatton, Jack Johns, Renny Krupinski, Katie Lyons, Colin Mace, Jack McMullen, Zsófia Rea, Hugh Simon, Leo Starr, Martin Turner, Eva-Jane Willis, Nicholas Wittman, Rufus Wright, Scott Alexander Young.

Maigret Sets A Trap: Television Review. full post

(437 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Leper.

The skin, admittedly once ravaged

by a disease, adult eczema,

taken to extremes

as it ate into my hide,

on the back of my neck, through my scalp

and deep within sweat glands and fur,

is nothing to the leper you have made me

become…

…the glory

in which the smile never leaves your face

like some twisted marionette, string

-less, pompous, arrogant

and once divine to the point of deity,

bow down to the clown

as I once did,

now this leper, confined to the fringe

Leper. full post

(125 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)

The Meaning Of Easter Lost In Translation.

The meaning of Easter seems lost

now to commerce

and the chocolate making machine

as some perhaps suggest

that a rabbit died

at Calgary, sentenced to be

a hot cross bunny, to take up our sins,

it’s the only explanation

that can be sought

when realising with certain eyebrow

raising deflection

that to complain about Watership Down

being on the little square box

“Today of all days”

is to have offended the Rabbit god,

I scratch my head in wonder at their

acceptance and their knowledge

The Meaning Of Easter Lost In Translation. full post

(112 words, estimated 27 secs reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript. An Interview With Geoff Downes Of Yes.

The sound of a legend talking down the phone might be enough to send the brain cells scurrying into submission, to wave the white flag of surrender and allow the moment to get out of hand but in Geoff Downes’ case it is a moment in which serenity and spirit is authorised to be conscious of just how important groups such as Progressive Rock Kings Yes are to the fabric of Britain and that each member of that group has played their part with enormous pride.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript. An Interview With Geoff Downes Of Yes. full post

(1368 words, estimated 5:28 mins reading time)

Paul Heaton And Jacqui Abbott, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There has always been so much to like about Paul Heaton, a man who wears his lyrical beauty on his sleeve and who can make a grown man weep with the elegance and sly nod of his words; when you add the delightful voice of Jacqui Abbott, a woman whose own command of the slippery wink worthy English Language is as cunning as her friends and a Liverpool Philharmonic Hall rammed to the point where dancing in the aisles was not only expected but actively encouraged by the words floating with sincerity, then Paul Heaton truly found he had come home.

Paul Heaton And Jacqui Abbott, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(457 words, 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)