Author Archives: admin

World Cup Memories (1982).

First published by Ace Magazine on-line. May 2014.

It was all about England having qualified for the World Cup for the first time since I had started following football with passion in 1976 that led me to watching nearly every match in the 1982 tournament with a grin and in equal measure, painful despair, etched all over my face.

I remember fragments of the World Cup in Argentina, however by and large the 1978 World Cup was something that by-passed me in much the same way as every other lad in my year at school developing a love of cars and engines, I knew it existed, but I had other past-times to pre-occupy me.

World Cup Memories (1982). full post

(1835 words, estimated 7:20 mins reading time)

Jimmy’s Hall. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Barry Ward, Simone Kirby, Andrew Scott, Jim Norton, Brian F. O’Byrne, Paul Fox, Sorcha Fox, Aisling Franciosi, Karl Geary, Denise Gough, Aileen Henry, Seamus Hughes, Francis Magee, Conor McDermottroe.

For as long as Ken Loach is alive and well, there really should be no reason for him to ever give up film making. As his latest piece, Jimmy’s Hall, shows that where there is a story involving social commentary, of wrongs visited upon a particular person, there should be a person to be able to tell it and they don’t come any better than Ken Loach.

Jimmy’s Hall. Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

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

Edge Of Tomorrow, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Brendan Gleeson, Bill Paxton, Jonas Armstrong, Tony Way, Terrance Maynard, Kick Gurry, Franz Drameh, Charlotte Riley, Dragomir Mrsic, Masayoshi Haneda, Lara Pulver, Madeleine Mantock,
Assly Zandry, Sebastian Blunt, Beth Goddard, Ronan Summers, Aaron Romano, Usman Akram, Bentley McKinley, Andrew Neil, Martin Hyder, Tommy Campbell, John Dutton, Harry Landis, Rachel Handshaw, Martin McDougal, Jane Hill,  Anna Botting. 

Edge Of Tomorrow, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(551 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Jack Taylor: Priest. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Iain Glen, Killian Scott, Nora-Jane Noone, John Kavanagh, Paraic Breathnach,  Susanne Schrader, Midie Corcoran, Lovis Baum, Dion Arensmann, Ronan Leahy, Eithne Ní Enrí, Nina Borey, Pippa Borey, Nuala Donnolly, Barry Keoghan, Chris Connors, Gary Hetzaler, Martin Linnane, Fionn O’Shea, Ingrid Craigie, Gavin Drea,  Síghle Ní Chonail,  Andreas Krämer, Ray Quinn.

Jack Taylor: Priest. Television Review. full post

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

Andrew Lancel To Be Part Of Brian Epstein Blue Plaque Unveiling.

Television and stage actor Andrew Lancel, who is set to play Brian Epstein in Epstein: The Man Who Made the Beatles, in London’s West End this summer, has been confirmed as one of the celebrity names who will unveil a commemorative Heritage Foundation Blue Plaque at the London offices of Epstein’s company NEMS on Sunday 29th June.

Andrew Lancel (Coronation Street and The Bill) says he is honoured to be asked to be a part of the special unveiling ceremony which will take place at Sutherland House, adjacent to the London Palladium, where NEMS occupied offices in the building from the height of Beatlemania in 1964 until shortly after Brian’s tragic death in 1967.

Andrew Lancel To Be Part Of Brian Epstein Blue Plaque Unveiling. full post

(479 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

Graham Gouldman, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is arguably nothing as fulfilling in life as seeing a master, in whatever profession, guild or sense of artistic endeavour, play infront of you knowing that they are having the same effect on every other member of the audience and that their work still hold you gripped after many years of having the fortune to stumble across their legendary output.

Graham Gouldman and Heart Full of Songs at The Epstein Theatre. Photograph reproduced with kind permission by David Munn Photography.

Graham Gouldman and Heart Full of Songs at The Epstein Theatre. Photograph reproduced with kind permission by David Munn Photography.

Graham Gouldman, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(583 words, 1 image, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

Vinny Peculiar, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are many lyrical geniuses walking the Earth, and long there may be so, for the world would be a place of desolation and rampant fettered hegemony controlled by those with no sense of humour or in some cases not an ounce of poetry in their soul. Their main concern the next big hit that has been written somewhere in a mansion and something that appeals to the wallet rather than the feeling of what the lyrics and music combined mean.

Vinny Peculiar, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Aquaman: Throne Of Atlantis. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It shows just how good an idea it was that the people behind D.C. Comics  came up with the concept of the New 52. A re-branding or re-imagining, which ever you wish to grasp onto, of their super heroes and the way that they were looked upon, from the casual interloper that may have been a staunch fan of their bitter rivals Marvel or the mass and gratefully received comic books and graphic novel fans who had shifted their purchasing power of the independents such as Dark Horse, it was a change that they could get on board with.

Aquaman: Throne Of Atlantis. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(666 words, estimated 2:40 mins reading time)

Two Tides, Theatre Review. Writing On The Wall. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Lisa Parry, Carl Cockram, Joel Shipman, Daniel Hayes, Paul Duckworth, Laura Campbell, Lois Young, Tom Wilson, Nicola Bentley, Alice Bunker-Whitley, Andy Frizzell, Phil Saunders,

There are pivotal moments in history that may go unnoticed by the wider world in general but to whom are just as earth-shattering, just as profoundly important to the greater good of the community and ground breaking in the lives it touches upon that they also deserve a time of reflection, of wide-spread celebration and revisiting.

Two Tides, Theatre Review. Writing On The Wall. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Brother Firetribe, Diamond In The Firepit. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

The shape of things to come and a hell of a nod to the British Rock scene of the 1980s in an intensity breathing, fist punching, engine ready to combust and an energetically dismissive of the some of the pomp that parades itself in the rock banner of recent years. It seems that if you really want to rock, ask a band from the Scandinavian set of countries and if you want to rock hard then ask Finland’s Brother Firetribe.

Brother Firetribe, Diamond In The Firepit. Album Review. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)