Author Archives: admin

Ragnhild Nordset, Sleepdancing. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When the news filtered through the North West press and bars that hosted music evenings in which Ragnhild Nordset frequented that the Norwegian musician was going to be leaving Liverpool, a place where she had become a firm favourite of the acoustic folk scene because of her tantilising voice, absolute sincere personality and incredible musicianship, there would have been no surprise that there would have been petitions made to keep this talented woman in the city and keep performing for the fans. Some people are meant to fly free though and if by returning to Nordic shores the creativity that was always there, flourishes even more then woe betides anyone who stands in her way.

Ragnhild Nordset, Sleepdancing. E.P. Review. full post

(335 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Endeavour, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Roger Allam, Shaun Evans, Anton Lesser, James Bradshaw, Jack Laskey, Sean Rigby, Jonathan Hyde, Mark Bazeley, Luke Allen-Gale, Sarah Crowder, John Flanagan, Billy Geraghty, Olivia Grant, Jonathan Guy Lewis, Alan Morrissey, Will Richards, Fiona Ryan, Sophie Stuckey.

Endeavour, Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

David Bowie, Let’s Dance. 30th Anniversary Retrospective.

Where Queen led a year before hand in their release of Hot Space, David Bowie was probably bound to go for the 1983 album Let’s Dance. However where Queen went arguably and disastrously wrong, The Thin White Duke, the master musical chameleon could only do right and Let’s Dance stands out as, up until the release this year of his album The Next Day, the last great and most adventurous album of a long and prestigious career.

David Bowie, Let’s Dance. 30th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(946 words, estimated 3:47 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Cold War. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Liam Cunningham, David Warner, Tobias Menzies, Josh O’Connor James Norton, Charlie Anson, Spencer Wilding, Nicholas Briggs.

 

Mark Gatiss must adore being part of the Doctor Who team. His occasional forays into the writing world of Britain’s longest running science fiction programme employs some of the best characters, some of the highest tension and most of all the dipping of his toe into his beloved horror genre, even if it pays homage with some of the best lines available.

Doctor Who, Cold War. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

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

The Crucible, Theatre Review. Static Gallery, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Tony Irwin, Christine Heaney, Sally Fildes-Moss, Kevin Foott, Jack Spencer, Sophie O’Shea, Donna Ray Coleman, Dan Pendleton, Lee Burnitt, Shaun Roberts, Leanne Jones, Paula Stewart, Meera Bala, Alex Clark, Bradley Thompson, Sophie Kirby.

Within 12 months Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, arguably one of the towering stage works of the 20th Century, has been performed in Liverpool by two amateur dramatic companies. In both cases the play that has been seen by audiences has left them spellbound and lost for words. This particular version by Tell-Tale Theatre at the Static Gallery and Directed by Emma Whitley and produced by Leanne Jones is without doubt the finest production possibly seen on either side of the Atlantic in decades and something that the playwright would have salivated over and found disturbingly majestic.

The Crucible, Theatre Review. Static Gallery, Liverpool. full post

(386 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

The Midnight Ramble, Sink The Pieces. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It is easy to miss the greatness of an album, the glowing and fitting tributes that came its way. No matter how hard you try you cannot physically hear every single album released in your life time and beyond, the small matter of occasionally sleeping is a big hindrance in the pursuit of hearing great music, let alone the 8-12 hours a day that are spent working. By picking and choosing what you listen too, you miss out on a nugget, a mind-blowing sliver of gold that others have heard but because you were sleeping you missed. It can be seen as somewhat inexcusable but you do have to sleep sometime.

The Midnight Ramble, Sink The Pieces. Album Review. full post

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

Isaac Newton: The last Magician, Television Review. B.B.C.2

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

For millions, Sir Isaac Newton is perhaps the most singular reason why humanity moved from the medieval world of myth, superstition and sometimes mind boggling ways of thinking by 21st century standards and into the way of enlightenment, to question what if rather than accepting the so called dogma rationale. In the B.B.C. 2’s Isaac Newton: The last Magician, the man is revealed to be more than the wrongly sum of his work in the Newton’s three Laws of Motion.

Isaac Newton: The last Magician, Television Review. B.B.C.2 full post

(411 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Spin Doctors, If The River Was Whiskey. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is something strangely comforting about revisiting a group’s past, even if it over 20 years later. The experience of listening to how songs sounded then to how you know they sound now live can be cathartic, a nod to the nostalgic in us all. It is even more humbling when you put place a new C.D. on, slip the headphones over the ears and wallow in something so majestically cool that you can only check the album over a few times just to make sure that the C.D. isn’t the wrong one, that what you are listening to really is the band a quarter of century later.

Spin Doctors, If The River Was Whiskey. Album Review. full post

(401 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Natalie McCool. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Four tracks in to her debut album, Natalie McCool asks in an intense and mesmerizing way, “Have you ever played with fire?” The answer may very possibly be yes, human nature is all about reaching for the unattainable and the desirable, no matter the cost to our soul and sanity. However Natalie McCool doesn’t just play with the fire, she supplies it, stokes the furnace till it gets so hot it positively blows and all the while she does it with every ounce of her being throughout this astonishingly superb album.

Natalie McCool. Album Review. full post

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

Iron Maiden, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. 25th Anniversary Retrospective.

Can Progressive Rock and Heavy Metal coexist? It may be a question that vexes the purists of either genre, in modern day crossovers everything is nearly acceptable and certainly possible but in the late 1980s two bands from opposite sides of the Atlantic embarked on producing albums that embraced the concept and rich diversity that the amalgamation of two distinct entities could bring them. Queensryche’s Operation Mindcrime would come out towards the end of April in 1988, the honour though of bringing out arguably the first Progressive Metal album would belong to Britain’s Iron Maiden with their most ambitious record at the time, the sensational Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

Iron Maiden, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. 25th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(982 words, estimated 3:56 mins reading time)