Author Archives: admin

Justice League: The Grid, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Treachery, in the world of action comics or the graphic novel, not one plot device captures the imagination more and makes the reader feel aggrieved at the sense of injustice that has befallen the team or the solo hero. The disloyalty meted out is of such a despicable nature that it is akin to treason to the state. The betrayal of a handshake given in good faith is almost left hanging in the mind as you see in the other person’s eyes just exactly they are planning to do. When it is properly captured by the writer it is the most symbolic action to be placed down on paper and in the fourth volume of Justice League, under the banner of the New 52, The Grid, betrayal and treason come no higher that one of their own turns against them.

Justice League: The Grid, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(518 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Forthaven, Darkness. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

You can see why some people suggest that the Arts has no place in society, that the individual has no place in society and that the only way forward is for everybody to like the same things and they do it with a sneer and a calculated business-like mind…they are of course deluded, the cruel twist of nature that has taken them from seeing somebody’s worth by the art they create and instead only seeing what can be gained in monetary value.

Forthaven, Darkness. E.P. Review. full post

(377 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Utopia. Series Two, Episode Two. Television Review. Channel 4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 81/2/10

Cast: Geraldine James, Fiona O’ Shaughnessy, Neil Maskell, Adeel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Alistair Petrie, Alexandra Roach, Nathen Stewart-Jarratt, Oliver Woollford, Kevin Eldon, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Michael Maloney, Ian McDiarmid, Paul Ready, Alan Cordiner, Pixie Davies, Leemore Morrett Jnr, Diane Morgan.

It is the 21st Century equivalent of throwing yourself out of the window of a tall office block after wiping millions off the value of shares in the United States, the way of suicide compared to the office boredom and placing the stapler over the tongue ready to make sure you feel something, anything, to let the pain remind you are still alive…as Ian asks his colleague, is it possible to actually die of boredom?

Utopia. Series Two, Episode Two. Television Review. Channel 4. full post

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

Stephen King, Mr Mercedes. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

After so many years of writing in a particular style that even the appearance of a full stop suddenly placed before the reader’s eyes was enough to have them scurrying for the covers and checking nervously under the bed, to witness Stephen King, the ultimate in the name of Horror in the 20th Century, take on a straight forward suspense thriller is akin to see him offer a book aimed at children…Mr Mercedes is no My Pretty Pony though, then again it is also no Under The Dome either.

Stephen King, Mr Mercedes. Book Review. full post

(527 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: Interview Special, An Interview With Robert Farquhar.

There is nothing quite like finding yourself in the company of a writer whose use of the English language is enough to cause palpitations of the pen, whose pre-interview conversations are as interesting as they are educational. This writer has over the course of the years since he has resided in Liverpool has created some of the most insanely wonderful comedies that audiences have had the honour of seeing and with whom have fallen in love with the Big Wow company over and over again.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: Interview Special, An Interview With Robert Farquhar. full post

(1669 words, 2 images, estimated 6:41 mins reading time)

Pavilions, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Even the most optimistic of music lovers are fully aware that to not see a band for around a year and expect them to play with the same consistency, the same richness that attracted you to them in the first place, could be seen as neglect, musical carelessness, a certain mistreatment. After all if human beings can change and grow then why not the artistic endeavours that we pursue. Those same artistic impressions can often lead to a downhill path, the choices made seemingly poor as band politics come into play and ego’s get bruised and battered.

Pavilions, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014) full post

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

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014)

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To sit infront of a young band who has come out fighting on all fronts since their inception and knowing that each time they appear before you, they just get more sleek, more smooth and unbelievably good is a feeling that warms the heart of even the most ungracious of hearts.

Buckle Tongue, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Liverpool. (2014) full post

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

Utopia: Season Two, Pressing Matters. Television Review. Channel 4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Rose Leslie, Anca-Ioana Androne, Tim McInnerny, Trystan Gravelle, Clive Wood, Pamela Ashton, William Belchambers, Ed Birch, Vicenzo Ferrara, Aine Garvey, Lorna Gayle, Yare Michael Jegbefume, Solomon Mousley, Harley Rooney, Mason Rooney, James Stratton, Kevin Trainor, Velile Tshabalala.

In your life time, depending on how old you are, the population of the Earth has almost tripled. Seven billion people fighting for a scraps of land, for food, water, over religion, over the right to survive and the right to have a family, Seven billion souls, who thanks to the advancement in healthcare, the quick eradication of infectious diseases and peace keeping forces, seemingly take up more resources than the world can actually supply. Such is the dystopian plot that makes up one of Channel 4’s finest programmes in over a decade, Utopia.

Utopia: Season Two, Pressing Matters. Television Review. Channel 4. full post

(569 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Greg Russell And Ciaran Algar, The Call. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are moments in which you can believe that you have listened to something that goes beyond the realms of the earthly, that somewhere something profound has come along and imbedded itself it at the very core of artistic endeavour. You just can’t help but love the sound that emanates across the few feet of floor between you and your stereo, between the speaker and your ears, a bond is formed and you cannot help but accept that music has moved you. Such a time comes in the form of Greg Russell and Ciaran Algar’s album The Call.

Greg Russell And Ciaran Algar, The Call. Album Review. full post

(379 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Rise Against, The Black Market. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Life is worth fighting for; it should never be placed into the open ended furnace in which desire and thought are too readily disposed in the pursuit of the quick fix and the so called unwelcome. Even when something doesn’t grab you at the first attempt it should at least be explored at least another couple of times so you can at least give it due consideration. Nothing is truly non-descript or distinctly average and that goes for music at the best of times.

Rise Against, The Black Market. Album Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)