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Heaven 17, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Lead us not into temptation… unless of course it is by the firm hand and knowing smiles of Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware of the sensational Heaven 17.

These words must have passed the vast majority of lips of those attending the second night of the Heaven 17 tour many times in the preceding weeks leading up to the gig at the East Village Arts Centre in Liverpool. By the end of the night, by the time that Martin Ware had conjured up enticing music from out of the ether and Glenn Gregory had sang with the power of a male siren luring all to the ship of musical entanglement and provocative craving, those words would have been uttered in each audience member’s sleep but with spoken with no conviction, for all it seemed were entranced by the stage presence and desire raging three feet above them.

Heaven 17, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Blancmange, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Neil Arthur stood almost transfixed on the stage of the East Village Arts Centre. Seemingly beautifully hypnotised by the sight and sound that was taking place before him as fans, young and old, of Blancmange didn’t just sing back to him, they liberated and gave freedom to the symbol of musical expression.

Blancmange, Gig Review. East Village Arts Centre, Liverpool. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Fury, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jim Parrack, Brad William Henke, Kevin Vance, Xavier Samuel, Jason Isaacs, Anamarie Marinca, Alicia Von Rittberg, Scottv Eastwood, Laurence Spellman, Daniel Betts, Adam Ganne, Eric Kofi-Abrefa, Osi Okerafor, John Macmillan, Saul Barrett, Marek Oravec, Kyle Soller, Jake Curran, Jack Bannon, Branko Tomovic, Orion Lee, Vivien Bridson, Christian Contreras, Stella Stocker, Jacob Vonhendial, Lukas Rolfe, Leon Rolfe, Harry Hancock, Daniel Dorr, Bernhard Forcher.

Fury, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(705 words, estimated 2:49 mins reading time)

Serena, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Rhys Ifans, Sean Harris, Toby Jones, Sam Reid, David Dencik, Blake Ritson, Ned Dennehy, Charity Wakefield, Michael Ryan, Kim Bodnia, Ana Ularu.

There are those that say that the great American epic is dead. That the days of the great American cinematic nature/love/natural landscape story is as over, torn apart by the digitisation and CGI effects on offer to the 21^st Century audiences. It is hard to disagree with that assertion, no matter how much grief and pain it may cause when viewed from the darkness of a cinema screening of Serena.

Serena, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

The Boomtown Rats, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool.

Bob Geldof at the o2 Academy, Liverpool, October 2014. Photgraph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

On a night like this…where the decades are rolled back, when the silent regret of Time sheds a tear for the lack of decency and improvement in the lives of those that inhabit the fragile Earth. In which the bullet and the bomb, the political scorn kicking downwards and the rise of a party in which right minded people should be doing all they can to make sure they never get a grasp on even a seat in the next election, let alone have a say in running the country. The Boomtown Rats returned to Liverpool and for those in the crowd at the o2 Academy old enough to remember, gave the type of performance for which audiences at Eric’s would have raved about for weeks on end.

The Boomtown Rats, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. full post

(729 words, 2 images, estimated 2:55 mins reading time)

Republica, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. October 2014.

Saffron of Republica at the 02 Academy in Liverpool. October 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

As an outside band to Liverpool, to perform in the city once a year is to be considered fortunate, to come twice, to blast the cobwebs that build up into nothing more than finely layered dust and its occupiers scuttling into the small cracks and fissures, should be arguably considered as a sign of mutual appreciation.

Republica, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. October 2014. full post

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

Jimmy Barnes, Hindsight. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * * *

The moment you receive your first electric shock, the stimulating feel of the mixed emotions of pain, the thrill that tingles down your arm and onwards to the riveted digits at the end and bouncing back up through the nervous system to the brain is on a par from the opening note and beating heart of Jimmy Barnes latest studio album Hindsight.

Jimmy Barnes, Hindsight. Album Review. full post

(522 words, 1 image, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Game Review: FIFA 15 (PS4).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

FIFA 15 is a sports simulation football game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. The FIFA series started over twenty years ago when FIFA International Soccer was released in December 1993 for retro platforms such as the 3DO, SNES, Sega Mega Drive, Game Boy, Amiga and many more platforms with each iteration ever since progressing into new realms of realism, graphical quality and atmosphere, while spanning multiple generations of consoles. The ultimate question upon the release of FIFA 15 must be how substantially it can build upon the previous game as FIFA 15 is only the second new-gen release within the FIFA series.

Game Review: FIFA 15 (PS4). full post

(4570 words, estimated 18:17 mins reading time)

Manfred Mann, Lone Arranger. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To appreciate a craftsman can be seen as dying art. In the age of reckless disposability, of the ease of abandonment if something doesn’t work, seems scratched, useless or somehow out of flavour and fashion, people only see the final results and not the process.

Manfred Mann, Lone Arranger. Album Review. full post

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

The Judge, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Billy Bob Thornton, Vincent D’Onofrio, Jeremy Strong, Dax Shepard, Leighton Meester, Ken Howard, Emma Tremblay, Balthazar Getty, David Krumholtz, Grace Zabriskie, Denis O’Hare, Sarah Lancaster, Lonnie Farmer, Mark Kiely, Matt Riedy, Jeremy Holm, Catherine Cummings, Tamara Hickey, Paul-Emile Cendron, Ian Nelson, Frank Ridley, Carol S. Austin, Ras Enoch McCurdie.

The Judge, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(566 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)