Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are times when you just want to round up the four members of The Mono LPs and shake them by the hand for giving you a few minutes of absolute pleasure, longer of course if you are fortunate to catch them live. However, for the time it takes for their new single Emilia to reach its explosive end, not only do you want to shake them by the hand but you would offer them anything to release a double album in which to sink the entire day into.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is as if Aldous Huxley and Philip K. Dick sat down one sunny afternoon, exchanged their views on the world and the inevitability of a dystopian nightmare and their perception on what life would be like if Humanity didn’t pull back from the brink of self-congratulation and its destructive self-harm; and from the collective pre-eminence that followed the flow and serious banter spawned an idea that would only come into being when Omrade were ready to unleash musical Film Noir on to the world with the tremendous Edari.
Be still my beating heart
and stop racing along as if you are being wound up
by Time, slow down, don’t dart
along as if the most beautiful woman
had asked you to kiss her with no commitment
to ever take her to bed.
I never imagined I would go this way,
I had the image of finally finding out what boredom was like,
the taste of a life, stuck in a bed, only resting they say and I
would joke along that rest is what you do when you
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The acid test for any artist is how they sound live, how they appear on stage and the reaction to the music which has been patiently poured over, dissected and hopefully enjoyed in the home; the C.D. player getting the full examination of its potential as the digital read-out gets dangerously close to a figure in which N.A.S.A. would abort a mission.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Over 50 years since The Beatles first played In Hamburg on what was to give them the grounding for the relentless touring to come, over forty years since they last all played together on the seminal Abbey Road, over 30 years since John Lennon was cruelly taken from his fans and probably about 90 seconds since a Beatles track was played somewhere in the world, and yet after all this time there are still some people in the world who would struggle shamefully to recognise the force that gave them their unique sound in the early Liverpool and Hamburg days.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10
Cast: Maisie Williams, Maxine Peake, Florence Pugh, Anna Burett, Greta Scacchi, Rose Caton, Lauren McCrostie, Katie Ann Knight, Evie Hooten, Monica Dolan, Mathew Baynton, Morfydd Clark, Joe Cole.
The Falling is full of style, intrigue; a cast dominated by wonderful actresses and full of potential and yet, despite all this, leaves the cinema goer feeling flatter than an uncooked pancake sitting in a café, untouched, alone and as indigestible as a school meal in the 1970s.
The old knight, full of lines and a paunch that has returned
despite many battles of valour and graces won, esteem
held high in his land for him
and even those he has taken prisoner full of praise for his honour
in their captivity, this old knight finds a corner
in which to put his hands over his face and allows a tear to fall.
A world in which has changed since peace was sought and found,
a peace in which he retired his suit of armour, sure that the fight
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Pauline Daniels, Suzanne Collins, Andy Ford, Lynn Francis, Emma Lisi.
Comfort food, it’s there to get us through hardship and pain, the long cold lonely nights when perhaps our will is at its lowest, when the thought of a small sausage roll or chocolate cream cake in front of the fire is preferable to a bit of hot crumpet, or bag of sweets; for some though the taste of Gateaux is worth waiting for.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Brighton has many attractions to it, so many special unique features and a way of life that marks it out as perhaps the most bohemian place, alongside Whitby, in Britain. It may not have the grandeur afforded it as Edinburgh nestles in, the history that London shamelessly parades, the industry that Birmingham gave the world or the humour and culture that Liverpool rightly is rightly proud of, but Brighton is something else entirely, it has meaning of all of its own and its exceptional appeal marks out as striving to have all the qualities that Edinburgh, Liverpool and London offer, but on a smaller, but nonetheless important scale.
Nicola Hardman cuts an impressive, unique figure as she sits opposite me in the Garden Café at F.A.C.T. The young musician/actor has been busy recording some new music and her latest song, Little Fish, is a tremendous listen. It is one of those songs where underneath the sound of a catchy tune, wriggles the idea that there is so much going on under the surface, so much unseen, that like all interesting people, those with so much to tell, you cannot but want to meet them and try and find out more.