Author Archives: admin

Venom, From The Very Depths. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Like all good narratives and stories that belong in the realm of darkness, From the Very Depths, is a suggestion that plays into the heart of basic fears, frustrations, doubts and other worldly qualms and the thought of endings as we know them.

It is also the very real place that sees rock bottom being attained and yet for Venom, rock bottom is not an option, it may be a fine starting place for the uninitiated to smile with teeth dripping metal corroded blood but for Venom, this is the point where years of output of across different line-ups becomes important, depths have been reached but a zenith is in sight.

Venom, From The Very Depths. Album Review. full post

(403 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Broadchurch, Television Review. Series Two, Episode Four.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker, Charlotte Rampling, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Arthur Darvill, Eve Myles, James D’Arcy, Meera Syal, Carolyn Pickles, Jonathan Bailey, Tanya Franks, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, William Andrews, Matthew Gravelle, Shaun Dooley, Amanda Drew, Joe Simms, Adam Wilson, Lucy Cohu, Thusitha Jayasundera, Hannah Rae, Hollie Burgess, Brendan Murphy, Lucas Hare.

The writer of Broadchurch must love playing with audience’s minds so much that he seems to take them to the point of one explainable and rational theory, before offering a certain line or screen shot which might go unnoticed in the melee of damnation and finger pointing, and a new line of though runs through the head and screams, “What about me?”

Broadchurch, Television Review. Series Two, Episode Four. full post

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

Doctor Who: Masters Of Earth. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Tracy Wiles, Brian McCardie, Sean Biggerstaff, Hugh Ross, Damian Lynch, Nicholas Briggs.

It can be a staggering thought at times, that even after over 50 years of storytelling, filmed adventures and audio escapades, that there is still moments in which to find a large, near timeless thrill in a new tale set in the world of Doctor Who. Masters of Earth is one of those audio dramas so beloved of its makers Big Finish, that it allows the listener to sit back, relax, to a point and remember why they might have fallen in love with Doctor Who in the beginning.

Doctor Who: Masters Of Earth. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(620 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Wily Bo Walker And Karena K, A Long Way From Heaven. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are combinations that are just made to make the heart swing that little faster, the amalgamation of seemingly different flavours that somehow go together and produce a slice of unexpected and much admired bliss.

The album may steadfastly proclaim that it’s A Long Way From Heaven, however just an hour in the company of Wily Bo Walker and Karena K and the highly original songs that come across the innocent sounding space between speaker and ear is soon filled with the sweet resonance of angel siding up to a Blues/Jazz combo and uttering the immortal words, “Turn up the heat baby, you’re on fire!”

Wily Bo Walker And Karena K, A Long Way From Heaven. Album Review. full post

(402 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Sean Webster & The Dead Lines, See It Through. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

You can be sat in your armchair, your favourite drink sat by your side, the lights down to an acceptable, undemanding level and with not a care in the world. Then from out of nowhere, an album comes on in a genre heard a thousand time before and the ears prick up, they sense something that they know the brain is going to appreciate and they tell all the other organs to be aware, some serious is going to happen and the only possible solution is to See It Through.

Sean Webster & The Dead Lines, See It Through. Album Review. full post

(512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

The Garth Park Shelter

There is a shelter in the park that acted as a goal,

the football aimed squarely at whoever was unfortunate enough

to act as the keeper, imagining they were Peter Shilton, Ray Clemence

or in my case the great Gordon Banks or even

Bert Trautman.

Not that I often went in goal, I didn’t like diving

on to bare concrete and seeing my T-shirt

ripped to shreds in a strange, weird way of portraying machismo.

I made allowances when some of the girls that we knew

The Garth Park Shelter full post

(627 words, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

Still Open All Hours, Television Review. Series One.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: David Jason, Lynda Baron, James Baxter, Stephanie Cole, Maggie Ollerenshaw, Johnny Vegas, Brigit Forsyth, Tim Healy, Kulvinder Ghir, Sally Lindsay, Nina Wadia, Barry Elliott, Mark Williams, Paula Wilcox, Vicki Pepperdine, Emily Fleeshman.

Over 40 years have passed since the immortal Ronnie Barker stuttered onto the screens of the nation as the tight fisted, corner shop owning Albert Arkwright. It was the days when Ronnie Barker was the B.B.C.’s comedy giant, when he was the lord of all he surveyed, from the Two Ronnies, to the phenomenal Porridge and of course the might of the Roy Clarke written Open All Hours, all he touched turned to gold.

Still Open All Hours, Television Review. Series One. full post

(513 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Jago And Litefoot: The Hourglass Killers. Series Four Box-Set, Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Christopher Benjamin, Trevor Baxter, Louise Jameson, Conrad Asquith, Lisa Bowerman, Terry Malloy, Elizabeth Counsell, Christopher Beeny, Mike Grundy, Colin Baker.

All the secrets are soon to be out in the open, nearly all anyway, as Justin Richards brings the fourth season of the adventures of Jago and Litefoot to an edifying and interesting conclusion in The Hourglass Killers.

Jago And Litefoot: The Hourglass Killers. Series Four Box-Set, Audio Drama Review. full post

(487 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Blame The Wolves, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Blame The Wolves, Zanzibar, Liverpool. January 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It must be the cry of half the population of the Black Country, one that they rejoice in and the other side decries with shouts of foul play before coming back with their own retort as their football scarves flutter wildly with expectation and grim determination. Yet somewhere in the unfairly called outback of Cheshire, Blame The Wolves has a different, more life affirming and tuneful approach mantra and as they appeared on stage at Zanzibar, the Saturday damp air mingling with revellers and drinkers realising just how long and arguably how bitter a personality January has, Blame The Wolves smashed down the door, made a movement towards the fireplace and made an appreciative audience howl with glee.

Blame The Wolves, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(434 words, 1 image, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Mike Flaherty, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Mike Flaherty at Zanzibar, Liverpool. January 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

The word interesting is one of the befuddled words that has changed its meaning over the years as each generation turns the English language inside out and makes it its own. Interesting and sick are two that seem to have almost swapped places as if in a Mark Twain historical novel and yet to those who see the words as they originally intended, interesting is a thing of beauty that is motivating and worthy of note and that certainly applies to the presence and appealing magnitude that resides in the soul of Mike Flaherty.

Mike Flaherty, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

(365 words, 1 image, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)