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.
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I Will Never Play James Bond.
*Inspired by a newspaper article in which asked William Hague if he could be James Bond, non-stories after all are the best…
No, thank you for asking,
but I can categorically say that I can rule myself
out forever running for Prime Minister,
I have no intention of walking on the moon,
neither shall I don a tuxedo
and play James Bond and kiss Pussy
Galore, as I believe no one could ever hold a candle
to the actress who played her before.
I state here and now for the radio mic
King King, Reaching For The Light. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The world has been a poorer place without the input of King King in it, of that there can be no doubt. The rich tapestry of life is only as deep and meaningful if all the players are taking part and their own story flows like wine at the aftershow of Cana. The tapestry needs to be woven closely and any interruption to the stitch and needlework is likely to cause a tear in the fabric and leave a gaping hole for the light to shine through despondently.
Nadjia, Gig Review: Live Stream. Paul McCartney Auditorium, L.I.P.A., Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There really is nothing like being at a gig, no other experience comes close; not even a hot date with your dream partner captures the humid, extra special occasion that music in the raw can bring to the mind.
Cloud, Gig Review: Live Stream. Paul McCartney Auditorium, L.I.P.A, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Perhaps the most poignant sentence was uttered towards the end of the nine day showcase of music at L.I.P.A.s Paul McCartney Auditorium as Oscar Vladau-Husevold, vocalist for Norwegian rockers Cloud, said with a the forming of a tear in his eye, the immortal word “Goodbye”.
This was not the way perhaps many of the artists leaving L.I.P.A. would choose to introduce the last song of their set, but it was arguably the most heartbreaking and yet profound moments in the days that have seen some of the most superb of artists to have graced the stage and some of the best music available to watch.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Peasant’s King.
There is something in which to revel in when watching a band perform in Liverpool for the first time, especially when after they have finished, the sweat pouring from their joyful brows and the sound of the music still reverberating round the ears a week later. When it comes to Pontypridd’s Peasant’s King, the next great hope to come out of South Wales, that feeling of intensity, of gracious Rock abandon, is to hope that you get to see them perform again and again.
Snuffed Out.
You talked of candles
burning brightly and yet
as I sit here feeling uncomfortable
in my own skin
and the remains of a once good life
laying in pieces
time and time again
as I struggle with the infinite cosmic joke
played out, I want
to take the light-bulb wannabe, the shadow of a
sun ray and gently snuff it out,
I want to impale the candle
on to the head of my own hidden anxiety
and I would very much like to
Rosenblume, Gig Review, Leaf, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Hype can be a tool in which certain yardsticks are set out to inevitably fail. Hype may gather interest, it may circulate a powerful emotion but the problem with hype is that it soon rusts; it fades into corporate fantasy and the sloth like figure of doomed expectancy. Hype is on the same level as hysteria, it rages and roars but then whimpers like a mouse caught choosing between three different slabs of meagre cheese.
Tiz Mcnamara, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is a cheeky, admirable quality to Tiz Mcnamara that crowds just cannot but help enjoy as he performs on stage in front of them. Having suggested with a glint in his eye and with the voice of pleasurable mischief coming through Leaf’s microphone, that he had swam all the way from Dublin to open for Rosenblume’s E.P. launch, there was no chance that he was going to leave Leaf’s packed audience without a smile on their face and a song in their already packed hearts.
Blood Wedding, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: EJ Raymond, Ricci McLeod, Irene Macdougall, Alison Halstead, Millie Turner, Miles Mitchell, Gerard McDermott, Ann Louis Ross. Amy Conachan.
There’s nothing like a wedding to enhance a good blood feud, to really get to the bottom of the relationship between one family and another, united in only one thing, absolute hatred of each other.
Lorca’s Blood Wedding explores the relationship of such feud but with that subtle twist that makes it stand out, makes it drive home the serrated cake knife home even further, as the least likely person on the day is the one calling the shots.