Author Archives: admin

Doctor Who, Spaceport Fear. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 170.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Bonnie Langford, Ronald Pickup, Isabel Fay, Gwilym Lee, Beth Chalmers, Adrian MacKinder, John Banks, Barnaby Edwards.

The close confinement and stark corridors are the magical ingredients that gleam through some of the best Doctor Who stories in its 50 years thrilling and scaring viewers and listeners alike. Add in a monster that’s unseen for the best part of the tale, mix in the unfamiliar sound of the alien chasing down the human population and a charismatic leader hell bent on trying to keep two sets people apart with him controlling them and you have the makings of a tantalising story by William Gallager called Spaceport Fear.

Doctor Who, Spaceport Fear. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 170. full post

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

Ripper Street, What Use Our Work. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Lucy Cohu, David Dawson, Ruta Gudmintas, Rebecca Grimes, Linal Haft, Amanda Hale, Charlene McKenna, Kristian Nairn, David Oakes, Clive Russell.

The final episode of Ripper Street, What Use Our Work, made sure the Victorian crime drama finished on a stunning high. With Chief Inspector Fred Abberline, portrayed by Clive Russell, so sure that he has finally caught the infamous Jack the Ripper that he is blinded by unreason, unsound evidence and professional grief to see that Captain Homer Jackson was innocent of the brutal murders that stalked London’s Whitechapel in 1888.

Ripper Street, What Use Our Work. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

A Reflection On Your Thoughts…

Is it just merely a light that once dazzled now that fades

Or is the beauty that once was depicted in original portraits

That resides in your house of empty rooms, now vacant of ever feeling

The subtle despair of a memory that parades

Throughout your unblemished and unfulfilled and uptight straight

Mind. No I don’t mind! You carry on stealing

And hammering in those nails of self-doubt and interest bearing,

Ever increasing moments of self-loathing.

You can’t hate me anymore than I do

And yet even in the darkness I know it’s true and I find myself caring

A Reflection On Your Thoughts… full post

(190 words, estimated 46 secs reading time)

Tim Kingham, Comic Reflections & Cosmic Truths. Poetry Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Poetry in Liverpool and its surrounding areas has had a huge mountain to climb in terms of ever trying to match what went before it after the Second World War and the arrival of the beat poetry that influenced a generation of poetry lovers in Merseyside and beyond. The names of Brian Patten, Adrian Henri and Roger McGough are forever entwined with that time and any promising composer of words has the knowledge that they have an almost near impossible task infront of them. There are a number of poets in Liverpool today who can fill any void left and amongst them is the Wirral’s Tim Kingham.

Tim Kingham, Comic Reflections & Cosmic Truths. Poetry Review. full post

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

Steve Macfarlane, Happy Daze. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is not the first time that poetry has been set to or inspired a musical score and it certainly won’t be the last but with the indomitable spirit and really sensuous voice that runs through the very core of Steve Macfarlane, the enchanting Billy Hui on piano and the words of the impressive poet Peter Grant, the musical orchestration of Happy Daze is a poet’s dream come true and hugely enjoyable to listen to.

Steve Macfarlane, Happy Daze. Album Review. full post

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

Doctor Who, The Sands Of Life. Big Finish Audio Play 2.02.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, Hayley Atwell, David Warner, Toby Hadoke, Jane Slavin, Duncan Wisbey, Nicholas Briggs, Beth Chalmers, John Dorney.

The Earth is in peril once more and The Doctor and Romana are again caught up between aliens and humanity in what could be the end of all sentient life on the planet. However, the aliens are doing what they need to do to survive, there is a bigger villain at large and it seems they control everything, except for time.

Doctor Who, The Sands Of Life. Big Finish Audio Play 2.02. full post

(531 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Alice Cooper, Billion Dollar Babies. 40th Anniversary Retrospective.

As his persona and as the leader of the American shock rock band Alice Cooper, the man named Vincent Furnier at birth must have appeared to some as the devil incarnate, the man who was leading the nations younger music lovers astray with the bands songs which suggested and spoke of subjects such as necrophilia, political instability and shocking church groups. Looking back with 40 years of hindsight, Alice Cooper’s sixth studio album, Billion Dollar Babies, it is nothing more than sensational and shows the leader of this much talked of group as nothing more than perhaps the ultimate music showman, the Barnum of the staged three ring rock circus.

Alice Cooper, Billion Dollar Babies. 40th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(1143 words, estimated 4:34 mins reading time)

The Rainbow Connection, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * *

Cast: Angela Simms, Daniel O’Brien

Can two friends of the opposite sex ever really be friends, especially when one is straight and one is gay? Joanne Sherryden’s play The Rainbow Connection looks at life and friendship between Shelly, a woman who has been scarred early in her time and who is hanging on the end of a line by her married lover and Joe, an agoraphobic and badly bruised by life and whose obsessive behaviour threatens to drive him further into his own self made prison.

The Rainbow Connection, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(360 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Iceage, You’re Nothing. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

The Scandinavian countries have a proud history of producing some really great music that catches the ear in more ways to the British ear than say music from Southern Europe. From Abba, A-Ha, Lena Marlin, In The Woods, Jacob Bro, Lars Ulrich of Metallica fame and Candlemass have all made an impression somewhere along the lines in the lives of music lovers from the U.K.  They are hard acts to live up to and newer bands trying to make any head way in their own country has a huge mountain to climb.

Iceage, You’re Nothing. Album Review. full post

(347 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, What The Brothers Sang. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

If you are going to do an album of cover songs by one of the greatest duos of American popular music then it not only has to be good, it has to be sensational and given a new twist. Thankfully Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, the folk singer Will Oldham, have not only managed this but have done it with such style and with due deference to the Everly Brothers that the songs could well have been written in the last year given their freshness and contemporary feel.

Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, What The Brothers Sang. Album Review. full post

(365 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)