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Mojo Makers, Wait Till The Morning. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The comparisons that will inevitably follow when Wait Till The Morning, the new album by the superb Mojo Makers, is released or even perhaps unleashed would be a better term with anything that the Midland’s own Led Zeppelin recorded should be disregarded  and put away as early as possible. Not for the reason that many might think, those that believe the genre stopped being of any significance when Led Zeppelin stopped making new music, but for the fact that in Wail Till The Morning is far and away more interesting a caged animal than almost anything the Midland band put together.

A Scanner Darkly. One From The Collection. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson, Rory Cochrane, Mitch Baker, Natasha Valdez, Mark Turner, Chamblee Ferguson, Angela Rawna, Eliza Stevens, Sarah Menchaca, Melody Chase, Leif Anders, Turk Pipkin, Alex Jones, Lisa Marie Newmyer, Ken Webster, Hugo Perez, Rommel Sulit, Dameon Clarke.

Watching a film adaptation of any Philip K. Dick story is likely to leave you scratching your head, pondering the meaning of existence and wondering if the directors have kept hold of their own sanity whilst working on a man’s work who was undoubtedly brilliant but whose words were riddled with the idea of a man searching for his own personal identity, even more so than any protagonist he wrote about in his novels or short stories.

Doctor Who: Starlight Robbery, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 176.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, Stuart Milligan, Dan Starkey, Jo Woodcock, Lizzie Roper.

There are just so many excellent elements to Starlight Robbery that it is surely impossible to dislike. Aside from the sublime writing of Matt Fitton, who makes a welcome return after a few months away, you have the erstwhile Elizabeth Klein, portrayed as usual with great assurance and ease by Tracey Childs, the sublime Stuart Milligan reprising his role as Garundel and the inclusion of the great Dan Starkey playing every Sontaran under the sun, what more could you ever want in an audio C.D.?

A Voice On The Road.

Scene: The interior of a bar in the early hours of the morning, there is the sound of laughter; the gentle sound of music floating through the air, a raised voice overwhelms the music briefly and the clatter of a pool ball being struck too hard. On set there are two people to be seen, one a barmaid cleaning glasses and occasionally pouring a drink for someone unseen off stage and to the left of the stage a man sat on a stool, leaning against a wall one hand on a glass the other reading a book. Beside his chair is a rucksack. The sound of the pool ball being smacked again too hard and it bounces once and starts to roll towards the man in the chair who for a moment doesn’t look up from his book until he hears the sound of someone shouting his name. The music dies down as the young man looks at the ball. Carefully he puts down the glass, whilst keeping the book held tightly on the page he is on and walks over to the ball and picks it up, staring at it for a moment as if in quiet contemplation. He walks over to the darkness and hands back the ball.

No Woman’s Land.

Dearest Mother, though I took my brother’s place at the front of the line,

I became him, I took his name

To spare the family honour, I must admit I am scared

Of being in this insane and absurd battlefield game.

In my wisdom, I believed the words they said

When for home by Christmas I would be by your side

Now as mustard gas shines like some evil suitor dishing out charming lies

Across No Man’s Land

I feel for those women who will lose husbands, sons, lovers tonight

Thomas McConnell, Worried About Thomas McConnell. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Worried About Thomas McConnell? On the evidence of his E.P., you really shouldn’t be as the young man with verve, style and the sweetness of attitude has produced four songs that typify the resilience of the young talented artists, musicians and people in everyday life to make their voice heard.

My Hero: Ben Miller On Tony Hancock, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The name, the very thought of his face and the way he was even able to clear the pubs of any custom at his absolute peak, is enough to remember Tony Hancock for what he was, a genius of comedy, the master of stalled look at camera in which he carried a nations funny bone for over a decade until his untimely death in Australia in 1968.

Annihilator, Feast. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Time moves on and the brilliance of a band that came to the forefront of their country’s contribution to the Heavy Metal/Thrash genre seems to have finally come to a stuttering halt and whilst not completely disintegrating into fragments just yet, the signs are ominously there. For Annihilator and Jeff Waters in particular, the premiere of Canadian Metal, the band that bought out some illuminating and defining classics in their time, have bought out their 14th studio album, Feast, and it is regretfully anything but.

Darkside, Radio Review. B.B.C. Radio 2.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Iwan Rheon, Amaka Okafor, Rufus Sewell, Bill Nighy, Adrian Scarborough, Peter Marinker, Robert Blythe, Ben Crowe, Philippa Stanton.

Tom Stoppard’s pedigree goes before him, he is arguably one of the most prolific and important playwrights of the latter half of the 20th Century and his work has continued to be a source of inspiration and keenly watched and listened to. The idea though that he would come up with an original play that delved deep into the mindset of British Progressive Rock Kings Pink Floyd and their seminal 1973 best-selling album Dark Side of the Moon could be seen by some, if not many, as a voyage of linguistic artistry too far. However if anyone can do justice to the opus that revolves around madness then Tom Stoppard perhaps is one of the finest to even attempt it the daunting process.

Metallica, …And Justice For All. 25th Anniversary Retrospective.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Four albums in and Metallica confirmed their place as the world’s biggest Metal band with the release of …And Justice For All. As years in music go, 1988 was a phenomenal year for Heavy Metal of any sub-genre, Iron Maiden had released the superb Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Queensryche had raised the bar to a new height with the epic Operation Mindcrime and Megadeth showed what was to come in the form of the interesting So Far, So Good…So What. …And Justice For All was the best of all worlds, the fusion of Progressive, the barbed sterile lyric feel in which the music reigned supreme and despite the incredible loss of Cliff Burton, the band were able to top the brilliance of the previous album Master of Puppets and give their audience perhaps arguably the finest album of their career. Out of such adversity facing the band with the loss of the superb Cliff Burton came the outstanding entrance of bassist Jason Newsted.