It’s difficult to remember you with clarity,
your face is but a shadow since you’ve gone,
you have left me with a feeling of emptiness, insanity
prevails as I think of you; the quick sprint in the Marathon.
You are missed as anniversaries are greeted at the back door
and the feeling of the incomplete fills my veins
the missing in life always leave a space that’s sore
I miss you in the ether now, your face, more losses, no gains.
But whose fault is it really that you are not here,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
You have only to listen to Three Minute Hero to know that inside the man sits the heart of socially aware human being, a person of intrigue and one who knows the intricate nature of penning a song which is both catchy, to any genre lover, and one that has a huge point riding along just underneath the sense of sound, one that asks a question of the listeners.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Chicago is a city built on several distinct sounds, the echoes of the past at times which reverberate and regurgitate over and over again, a beautiful, vibrant city but one caught arguably in its own musical demise and with only a few choice new names brave enough to try and tear that down.
Ryk Mead & The London Blues Band’s Chicago on the other hand is a place filled with opportunity in which 11 songs offer a fresh almost tantalising sound of innate pleasure and in which, whilst steeped in the Blues, is not overawed by the past association of a genre that has stepped out of its own terminal pre-21st shadow and become a vivacious and almost flamboyant beauty once more.
You may grasp for the gold under the soil
and all the platinum from the ground,
take whatever diamonds you need to impress, the coal the oil
take the flesh from my back if you wish, pound after pound.
Riches after all make this world go round.
The art of purchase, of ownership, of wealth and prosperity,
the conformation of a life well lived, of the jewel laden echo after the sound;
long may you reign, I will cheer if you wish but it’s not the life for me.
Don McLean at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Living legends, the serious list of those steeped in folklore and certain amounts of musical mythology, gets smaller and reduces in size every year. It is the way of things that for the generations past the heroes they grew up with, that they hummed alongside and perhaps even learned to play in some honorary fashion some of the gentle chords that turned them on to life, will all pass into the great gig in the sky and leave a huge musician sized hole in their wake.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Jake Abrahams, Eithne Browne, Suzanne Collins, Michael Ledwich, Alan Stocks, Lenny Wood.
Confession and revelation is not confined to the unburdening of souls in the wooden box that adorns many a church, the simple act of sticking a paw out for a taxi when time, tide and the day is against you is perhaps arguably a more sincere way of getting the troubles of the soul purged, for the taxi driver hears all, sees all and unless you happen to become the topic of conversation which revolves around the words, “You’ll never guess who I had in the back of my cab last week”, then your secret torment, bad relationship, money troubles, who you would like to see bumped off, what you think of the council, all are kept secret.
Chelsey Chambers at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
To be invited to open up a gig before a legend of American music must either be a dream come true or a millstone in which heads droop in realisation of the enormity of what has been agreed to. Either way, the only true course of action is to stand up and be counted, shoulders back, guitar primed and let the music flow out of you as if it is the most natural thing in the world to do.
Natasia Bullock sits in F.A.C.T. on Wood Street and surveys the passing stream of people going through the day, like ghosts passing through time, the vapour trail they leave is one that is coloured and magical. The smile on her face never wavers as the assured pleasantries and the usual conversation pieces of two people who know each other well enough to be comfortable in each other’s company, not matter what side of the question they come from.
The evening that Banjo Don came back to town,
the sun curtseyed in the west and nodded its approval
and smiled a boyish grin at the grand old man and his upturned frown;
the banjo acolytes, the notes all slightly out of tune and reluctant call
compared to the sound that their chosen master. Banjo Don
took to the streets and under a glowing sun
proved that the people had missed his sound, for no one can
play the strings with melodic ease or deliver a grin when playing for fun,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The war is over, the battles, at great cost, have been won and the exiled fables have been saved in part to the heroics of Bibgy Wolf, Prince Charming and Boy Blue, yet deep down, even with Geppetto being captured and the puppet adversary finally succumbing to overwhelming odds, the reader and fan of Bill Willingham’s highly delightful fantasy graphic novels knows that the real test is still to come and that Fables: War and Pieces is only the end of the beginning.