There is an upside to having suffered with nightmares
all my life, the terror that has had me screaming out
at four in the morning as the feeling of cramp
sets in and the heart jolts me awake in some antique form
of Hypnic Jerk and the pain is compounded
by the
sweat of salted tears that kiss my lips and
run down past my nose,
gliding as if on a mountain range,
a single skier running over every pore but
with no tricks up its sleeve.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The 100 Club in London may be the scene of many a clandestine gig that has caught the music lovers of the city unawares over the years but one name certainly caught the attention of the audience when she performed there. Thankfully now it is a gig that can be heard for what it was in the new release, Live In London, one of sublime entertainment and guitar to fuel the passion of 21st Century Blues whilst paying homage to the true greats of the previous century.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Roberta Laguardia.
The life and work of Italian artist, feminist and political activist Franca Rame might not be that well known but in a collaborative effort between Italian actress Roberta Laguardia and the Lantern Theatre, two pieces of work her work were performed and all with the blessing of Franca Rame’s long-time collaborator and heir to her estate, Dario Fo to a Liverpool audience.
The evening started with an informed and informative introduction to the life and work of Franca Rame by Liverpool-based performer and academic Brian Desmond before settling down to the first of the two pieces of work on offer, The Rape.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Jody Latham, Elizabeth Carling, Simon Hubbard, Danny Cunningham, Patrick Mcnamee, Annabel Scholey, Tom Hutch, Emma Lundy, Rosie Wyatt, Lucian Msamati, William Graham, Paul Hamilton.
For every generation must come a time when it watches those who will replace them with wonder, dread and in some cases frightened to death of what will happen to them and those not wishing to follow in their size nines. For those that lived through the Second World War and fought for the peace that was won afterwards, to see the actions of some of the young, untempered by the hardships and reality of fighting against an enemy that wanted to destroy you but who in turn wanted to sweep away everything that you had fought desperately for, must have been like watching a tidal wave of exhausting hatred and bile.
The ghost sits waiting patiently till I am half way
to a paradise of exhausted slumber before it somehow
manages to turn the radio over to medium wave.
The sound of the crisp digital broadcast suddenly lost,
abandoned into the vaporous ether like wisps of smoke
drifting out to sea and drowned out by the sound of Nelson’s drum
beating slowly as it recognises that some part of the country
is about to drown. Not my part surely as I wake with groggy eyes
puffed up and swollen from the ghostly attack on my right
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Brian Conley, Linzi Hateley, Kimberley Blake, Landi Oshinowo, Mikey Jay-Heath, John Stacey, Georgie Ashford, Greg Bernstein, David Birch, Courtney-Mae Briggs, Nick Butcher, Alison Connell, Stefan Dopazo, Lewis Easter, Chris Gage, Joanna Goodwin, Pascal Haering, Rebecca Hawkins, Erin Jameson, Jennifer Robinson, Louis Stockil, Lucy Thatcher, Edward Wade.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is something uniquely special about the great American steel town of Pittsburgh, nestled alongside a river as imposing to look at from above as the Mersey, Tyne or the Thames. The richness of the area is to be seen in its culture, historical links to almost every momentous occasion in the United States and the ties that made it a place to covet both during the wars between both sides of the independence debate and that between America’s soul of the Civil war.
On the day I met Shaun Goater, I realised I had met
a living legend of Blue persuasion,
one who ranked with Colin Bell, Peter Barnes,
Uve Rossler, Asa Hartford and Bert Trautmann
as the hand I wanted to shake for being themselves
when placing the blue shirt above all in the name of the Kippax
and the beauty in despair of being an exiled Citizen.
From the first game away at Birmingham City,
a bus journey from Selly Park, from where soon
a picture of Joe Corrigan would look down
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It’s not a sound a listener might expect to have come from the gateway to the west, a city that is more in touch arguably with the Chicago Blues, heavy rock, the sound of Jazz and Gospel naturally permeate the city skyline and the luminance of Robert Lamm and the brilliance of Peter Cetera hang heavy over the city’s past and possibly the future. Yet for Chicago-based JoyFocus the sound that weaves its way through the past like a hi-speed chase involving a one armed man and an irate and falsely accused Doctor is both invigorating and encompassing.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The unexpected is a tale that can simmer with delight or be so damning that it’s hard to understand what was going through the heads of the participants involved. The best mix of this is when both collide head on like two rutting stags vying for the attention of a doe whose just been left a four bedroom apartment in the middle of New York and commanding views of Central Park, some stags aren’t going to give up on that prize easily.