steve earle in Liverpool. August 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The word legend is, at times, overused. It is the way of the English language that almost anything or anybody can have the word placed before it and that is perfectly acceptable. For what else is the fluidity of the sematic if not for marking out certain well used phrases if it has a sense of positivity attached to it?
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The Echo Arena is arguably the perfect place to go when you really want to be part of a large crowd, the heaving mass of humanity enjoying the finest that Rock and other genres have to offer, Whether it’s Roger Waters, Status Quo, Muse or even the legendary Neil Young, the arena has a vibe that means Liverpool music fans don’t have to travel to far off venues in Manchester, Birmingham or London.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Who killed Cock Robin? Well in any Revolution there are always going to be casualties, some will say those that die in ensuing civil war are martyrs to the cause, some are murdered by design and others, innocents like Cock Robin, were just caught in the cross fire of the opening skirmishes and jostling for position.
Revolutions in the mind of Bill Willingham though are so much more complex, the land of Fable is not as straightforward nor as nice as many believe it to be. If Fables in Exile set the stall out for what is a remarkably well written series then Fables: Animal Farm is the dark underside that makes the series make sense.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Mahjong Gold is a traditional Chinese puzzle game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS Vita. With Mahjong: Royal Towers and Mahjong: World Contest both being exceptional Mahjong games questions will surely be asked that can the sequel Mahjong Gold match up to or perhaps even better its predecessors?
There are six different categories of levels that are referred to as contests with each contest spanning twenty levels totalling to an amazing 120 levels! Each of the six contests has a specific name including: Lagoon of Trials; Mariner; Bootsmann; Midshipman; Captain; and Admiral with each being tied to a difficulty level ranging all the way from newbie to experienced, expert, master and champion.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The humble compilation album can take many forms. In now what seems at times the dim and distant past, as distant to the younger generation coming through now as Sir Edmund Hilary’s and Tenzing Norgay’s ascent of Everest to those growing up in the 1970s, the past when to have your say in music meant taking the pick of the songs you may have proudly bought or even embarrassingly hidden away due to the absurdity of the song and placed onto a C90 tape and perhaps even then handed over with much ceremony to the person you perhaps fancied, the compilation stood for something pure.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Albums can pass you by, as if you are not careful, can days, family and friends. Family and friends might forgive you, Time is as likely to absolve you as is it to climb aboard the Orient Express and order several cups of Russian Caravan tea before the train leaves the platform in a cloud of comforting smoke, so it leaves the album as the only one that is sure to pardon your stupidity completely as long as you find it eventually.
No matter
how many times you make me feel
as though I must apologise,
I never hear the slightest murmur of a returned regret
or explanation, just the continued self-justified
rant of the hardly innocent, ever smiling, resolutely angry and bitter soul.
Is it possible
to feel more degraded than the way you made me feel,
the contradiction of the argument, the swallowing
of the pride in which would allow my dog
that barks down my ear, growls with impatience,
that slowly salivates and allows to drip
…
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Susie Blake, David Hayman, Barnaby Kay, John Macmillan, David Newman, Amy Nuttall, Tim Potter.
There is always a call for programmes to employ to show how vital the older acting community are to their profession, that not everything in life is supposed to pander to the youthful exuberant angle that on occasion, dominates television. The trouble is in days gone by that this meant being a star on the programmes such as, worthy as it is, Last of the Summer Wine or appearing as somebody’s grandmother of grandfather in the latest play for the day.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Heroes never stay dead, at least not in the world of fiction and certainly not in the world of the graphic novel. Merchandise, fan pressure, the thought of a new riveting story in which to place a much loved character in, all can play their part in bringing back to existence a hero who gave up life willingly in the fight against evil. Even a true villain never stays dead for long. So that should be the case with Barry Allen, arguably the finest incarnation of D.C.’s speedy hero that ran against the wind.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Sometimes you just have to let the bull rage, let the colossus of the animal world snort and devastate even the most delicate of china shops in the cause of smashing a few plates. That bull, the beast that can rip open a refusing ear at 200 yards, stares out from the front of the latest, and phenomenally brilliant, album by Accept and the Blind Rage of lyrical fury and crazed wrath crashes through the barrier between stereo and thought and holds the soul hostage till it realises that anger is not a fashion statement; it is deep, honest and fruitful.