Author Archives: admin

Muse, The 2nd Law. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ***

There comes a time in a groups, hopefully distinguished career, where a listener may stop and think, well that was good but it wasn’t really as awesome as everybody raved on and on about. That might be the case with Muse’s sixth album The 2nd Law.

One of the band’s great strengths over the last few albums is the absolute conviction that they have created something approaching unique, something nothing less than genuinely superb and out of this world. Even including Black Holes and Revelations into this equation, which after quite a few plays revealed an album that wasn’t quite up to scratch, full of pit falls and loosely tied together with some very appealing songs as Map of the Problematique and Invincible, it still suited the canon and the ways of Muse.

Muse, The 2nd Law. Album Review. full post

(448 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Burning Prince. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 165

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ****

Cast: Peter Davison, Caroline Langrishe, Clive Mantle, George Rainsford, Dominic Rowan, Derek Hutchinson, Caroline Keiff, Tim Treloar, Kirsty Besterman.

It is unusual to find the fifth Doctor’s incarnation adrift in time and space without any of his much loved companions keeping a watchful eye on him, to bounce their anxieties off him or even just to make sure he stays on the right side of compassion. This latest story from Big Finish, The Burning Prince, sees the fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison, do exactly that and it is a surprisingly frightening prospect.

Doctor Who, The Burning Prince. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 165 full post

(506 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Gods And Monsters. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 164.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ****

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Philip Olivier, Maggie O’Neill, Amy Pemberton, John Standing, Blake Ritson, Gus Brown, Tim Treloar, Elizabeth Bennett.

The final part of the latest Sylvester McCoy Doctor trilogy sees the real villain of the piece make his deadliest and fatal move in Gods and Monsters.

The latest three-part series by Big Finish sees Mike Maddox finish an extraordinary story line on a stunning high and with the supposed loss of a companion, something that the television version and the audio series don’t do that often but both of whom now have taken the bold step to give the faithful listeners and viewers something to ponder over.

Doctor Who, Gods And Monsters. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 164. full post

(579 words, 1 image, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Bruce Foxton, Back in the Room. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ****

For anyone, who in the last couple of years caught one of the original godfathers of modern music, Bruce Foxton, performing with Mark Brzezicki and Russell Hastings as part of the excellent From the Jam will point out, the man who put rock into roll is back and better than ever.

Bruce Foxton, Back in the Room. Album Review. full post

(372 words, 1 image, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Tori Amos, Gold Dust. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *****

In 1992 an album was released by the name of Little Earthquakes and the impression it made on those who heard it turned the composer of the delicate and angst ridden tunes into at first a cult hero and then over the ensuing 20 years has turned her into an absolute legend. Tori Amos doesn’t sit still, not at her beloved piano and more importantly not in her life. Just a little over a year since she released her first foray into classical music, she has come out all guns blazing with the breathtaking Gold Dust.

Tori Amos, Gold Dust. Album Review. full post

(469 words, 1 image, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Heart, Fanatic. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating ****

Two years after Heart brought out Red Velvet Car, Ann and Nancy Wilson have once again teamed up with Ben Mink and come up with an album of distinction. For those that only remember Heart as producing hard rock ballads during the 1980’s and know nothing of their early albums such as Little Queen or Dreamboat Annie, before you listen to Fanatic, check out the early recordings, see how rich and full Ann Wilson’s voice was and then compare. For as Red Velvet Car showed, the two sisters are back and sounding as good as they did before they sold out to the 80’s corporate mainstream.

Heart, Fanatic. Album Review. full post

(387 words, 1 image, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

The Illegal Eagles, Gig Review. The Liverpool Empire Theatre.

Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 30th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Eagles may soar high but only really sadly tour seemingly sporadically now and despite finally coming together to produce one of the most acclaimed albums of 2007 in Long Road Out Of Eden, it   really doesn’t look as if it is going to be an ongoing concern for the band. Thankfully then for fans of the American band, The Illegal Eagles always seem to step up to the plate and deliver a set worthy of the illustrious band.

The Illegal Eagles, Gig Review. The Liverpool Empire Theatre. full post

(498 words, 1 image, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Theatre Review. The Lantern Theatre, Liverpool.

Fine Time Fontayne and Neil Gore at The Lantern Theatre. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 29th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Neil Gore, Fine Time Fontayne.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell should be considered one of the most important books of the last 100 years, no matter what your background is. First published in 1914, it shocked then as it still has the power to do so now. The adaptations for the stage have been equally well received and especially in Liverpool where in 2010 Howard Brenton’s adaptation and starring Finbar Lynch, brought the house down.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Theatre Review. The Lantern Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(414 words, 1 image, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Killing Them Softly. Film Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 28th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Brad Pitt, Richard Jenkins, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, Sam Shepherd, Slaine, Bella Heathcote, Vincent Curatola, Linara Washington, Garratt Dilahunt.

A film that relies heavily on the use of violence, spectacular cinematography and a look at how the mob can be seen as still effectively running the United States of America 50 years after President Kennedy tried to destroy it.  That it is in a sense the idea behind the new Brad Pitt film Killing Them Softly.

Killing Them Softly. Film Review. full post

(427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

The Boomtown Rats, The Boomtown Rats. 35th Anniversary Retrospective.

Originally published by L.S. Media. September 27th 2012.

The history of the Punk movement would not be complete without the influence of the bands that came from across the Irish Sea, took Great Britain by storm and who in one way or another become heroes to a generation that transcended politics and religion and yet who left their own indelible mark on the national conscious in the late 1970’s and early 10980’s.

The Boomtown Rats, The Boomtown Rats. 35th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(1111 words, 1 image, estimated 4:27 mins reading time)