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Ella The Bird, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Ella The Bird at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

How often can you honestly place your hand upon your heart and swear that you have uttered the word wow, that three little word that escapes like a phantom, never knowingly seen or oversold into the ether, as you have watched a support act on stage? It happens, like the rising of the sun, just because you don’t see it every day doesn’t mean that it has forgotten to poke its head above the misty horizon and bounce its rays straight into your eyes. It happens, perhaps once in a while, perhaps once in fifty gigs, but it does happen and listening to Ella The Bird performing on stage before Justin Currie made his own wow effect on the Epstein Theatre audience; the very sizeable wow was heard from somewhere in the audience and the small smile of contented reality bit home.

Ella The Bird, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(463 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Andrew Motion: The Customs House. An Evening With Andrew Motion. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The last time former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion stood on the Everyman Theatre stage and spoke with candour, passion and an abundance of knowledge of the world of poetry, the award-winning theatre was a very different beast. In the intervening years since his last visit, The Everyman has become a place in which the world has taken notice of and in which Andrew Motion takes even more interest in the world that many of us perhaps take for granted or shy away from lest it demolish our faint unheard dreams.

Andrew Motion: The Customs House. An Evening With Andrew Motion. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

This Is My Family, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Evelyn Hoskins, Bill Champion, Clare Burt, Terence Keeley, Marjorie Yates, Rachel Lumberg.

Everybody has a family somewhere, even if it is one of their own making. They are loved, loathed, loved and despised in equal measure, they are the insanity that makes us smile, they are the thread that makes us weep; a family is there to keep us grounded, whilst allowing us the freedom to believe we can fly. Somehow Tim Firth, the man with the Laughing Cavalier pen attached to his enormous soul, has created a play of great artistry and comic value that reflects all of this in This Is My Family.

This Is My Family, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(494 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Shadow Warrior (PS4), Game Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9 out of 10

Shadow Warrior is a first-person shooter game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. The game is a re-make of a game that was originally released on May 13th 1997 and developed by the legendary 3D Realms which was clearly inspired in its direction by their previous smash hit Duke Nukem 3D having been released on January 29th 1996.

Shadow Warrior (PS4), Game Review. full post

(3567 words, estimated 14:16 mins reading time)

The Jackobins, Ghosts. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

For anybody over a certain age and who never fulfilled a particular inventive goal, to see a great band produce quality recordings and have the absolute conviction that strides alongside the energy to pull off the artistry is something that the previous generation could only perhaps feel the tiniest bit of jealousy for. Of course the jealousy, if it appears, never lasts long, for the only thing you can do, on either side of the divide that separates one age bracket from another is too wish them well and revel in the dedication that sweat out like the fire from a jet propelled rocket.

The Jackobins, Ghosts. E.P. Review. full post

(383 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Windmill, One More Dance. Single review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

They may be a disappearing feature from the British countryside, however there is one particular Windmill that is going so strongly that its rotating blades of lingering vocals, moodily impressive guitars and drum pattern is sure to keep offering a twirl of spirited dynamism that is surely vital and causes a breeze of content to waft through the street of Liverpool.

Windmill, One More Dance. Single review. full post

(352 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

James Patterson, Cross My Heart. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When it comes to writing Crime Fiction there is probably nobody more prodigious or capable of such a vast wealth of tension in their words than American writer James Patterson. When it comes to undoubtedly his greatest creation, Detective Alex Cross, that output generates enough steam from the ideas being poured out that it would put the weight of pressure that is ready to explode under Yellowstone Park seem like a damp dish rag ready to be put out to dry in the Florida sunshine.

James Patterson, Cross My Heart. Book Review. full post

(471 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Steve Hackett, Genesis Revisited, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The invisible but highly audible Sirens that line up and down Birmingham’s glittering Broad Street area could have bayed and bleated all night long as they watched the neon lights fade and dim to obscurity, nothing could have torn the rapt attention of the audience inside the Symphony Hall away from Steve Hackett and the band as they recreated for the final night in the U.K., the songs that entranced a generation and beyond.

Steve Hackett, Genesis Revisited, Gig Review. Birmingham Symphony Hall. full post

(725 words, 2 images, estimated 2:54 mins reading time)

Rhys Marsh, Sentiment. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Sentiment, the reaction to something that grabs the musical spirit and allows it grow over time into a positive and perhaps enlightening response that allows the human imagination to remember where they were when they first heard a particular song and the imagery that flashed before their eyes.

Rhys Marsh, Sentiment. Album Review. full post

(446 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Iain Till, The Rise And The Fall. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When Iain Till found himself back in the performance arena, not quite gladiatorial provisioned but still armed with a sense of hope, proportion and wielding a deck full of songs, he perhaps would not have expected to reach the point where the release of the E.P. was to be considered the norm. The climb is a hardy beast full of pitfalls and the descent, well that is only too carefully planned by hubris to really ever keep an eye upon. Such is fortune’s way of preparing for The Rise and the Fall.

Iain Till, The Rise And The Fall. E.P. Review. full post

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