Gary Moore, How Blue Can You Get. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Gone, but never once forgotten, and even in the ten years since the passing of one of the greats of Blues guitar, the outpouring of love for Gary Moore is equal the continued interest in his work, the retrospectives and the delved into live performances that have been made available since his untimely death, and whilst the feeling of neglect has never once entered the thoughts of the fans left behind, there is obviously sadness that there wasn’t just one more studio album for them to let their Blues hearts revel in, to let them have a final discussion on just how important Gary Moore was to the genre, to music.

Gary Moore, How Blue Can You Get. Album Review. full post

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

Midsomer Murders: The Stitcher Society. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Nick Hendrix, Fiona Dolman, Annette Badland, Keith Allen, Lizzy McInnerny, Colin Murtagh, Manoj Anand, Raj Awasti, Nimmy March, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd. Peter De Jersey, Michael Nardone, Sirine Saba, Natalie Simpson, John Thompson, Harriet Thorpe.

A heart attack is a life changing moment, a point of reckoning, a path that splits in two, and depending on how you recover, can lead to decisions being made that have ramifications down the line, and which, like murder, can lead to others suffering for your spur of the moment actions.

Midsomer Murders: The Stitcher Society. Television Review. full post

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

Angel Has Fallen. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating *

Cast: Gerard Butler, Piper Perabo, Morgan Freeman, Fredrick Schmidt, Danny Huston, Lance Reddick, Rocci Williams, Harry Ditson, Ori Pfeffer, Michael Landes, Mark Arnold, Kerry Shale, Tim Blake Nelson, Jada Pinkett Smith, Nick Nolte.

Occasionally you just have to sit back and be astonished at how a film manages to be given the green light to see the light of day, how, despite the odds, it morphs into a franchise that keeps going, and how it hooks in one of the most respected and gracious actors of his time, the honourable Morgan Freeman, to what is surely no more than a down market version of No Way Out, a simplistic, basic thriller that leaves a taste so thin in the mouth that it could be mistaken for gruel.

Angel Has Fallen. Film Review. full post

(508 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Mike Clerk, The Space Between My Ears. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

For now, our thoughts are our own, and we must treasure that, hold on to the privilege of self-determination and will, our judgements and beliefs that are immersed into the fabric of what makes our experiences unique, to be able to say with conviction that The Space Between My Ears belongs to me, and me alone.

Mike Clerk, The Space Between My Ears. Album Review. full post

(403 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Teenage Fanclub, Endless Arcade. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The arcade, for many, was a place that was called home when home itself felt like alien territory. To be surrounded by likeminded people of your own age, to be overwhelmed by the bright lights, the echoing sound of coexistence and the constant range of voices in their angst as they took on ghosts, space invaders with repeated taps of an enticing button and the joystick which was handled by a thousand kids in their retreat into a world of machines and wires, the system that spawned a generation of teenagers to understand that what they needed was community, not derision and ridicule.

Teenage Fanclub, Endless Arcade. Album Review. full post

(491 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

The United States Vs Billie Holiday. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Andrea Day, Trevante Rhodes, Natasha Lyonne, Garett Hedlund, Leslie Jordan, Miss Lawrence, Dusan Dukic, Erik LaRay Harvey, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Koumba Ball, Adriane Lexox, Letitia Brookes, Tyler James Williams, Warren ‘Slim’ Williams, Jeff Vorbett, Damian Joseph Quinn, Robert Alan Beuth, Randy Davison, Melvin Gregg, Kevin Hanchard, Furly Mac, Evan Ross.

The United States Vs Billie Holiday. Film Review. full post

(643 words, estimated 2:34 mins reading time)

Low Island, If You Could Have It All Again. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

What would you do differently If You Could Have It All Again? An old question perhaps of inconsequence, for Time does not allow the luxury of returning to the moment where your life could be altered significantly; for in the heat of the yes/no response your whole future hangs on the decision made by you and for you.

Low Island, If You Could Have It All Again. Album Review. full post

(405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Romeo & Juliet. Film Review. (2021).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Josh O’Connor, Tamsin Grieg, David Judge, Fisayo Akinade, Adrian Lester, Lucian Msamati, Deborah Findlay, Ella Dacres, Ellis Howard, Lloyd Hutchinson, Alex Mugnaioni, Shubham Saraf, Colin Tierney.

Mercutio was ahead of his time as he lay dying in the arms of Romeo, a plague has indeed been visited upon all our houses, but not the direct one you may be thinking of, but instead the beast of burden which has seen audiences and theatres changing completely their style of interaction with each other, the after effects of a life changing situation meaning that to engage with the public and give them hope in what has been a period of uncertainty.

Romeo & Juliet. Film Review. (2021). full post

(542 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Legends Of Tomorrow: Series Three. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast; Caity Lotz, Brandon Routh, Victor Garber, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Franz Drameh, Amy Louise Pemberton, Tala Ashe, Nick Zano, Dominic Purcell, Arthur Darvill, Jes Macallan, Hiro Kanagawa, Adam Tsekhman, Courtney Ford, John Noble, Neal McDonough, Matt Ryan, Billy Zane, Bar Paly, Celia Massingham, Isabella Hofmann, Graeme McComb, Benjamin Diskin, Luke Bilyk, Geoffrey Blake, Lovell Adams-Gray, Johnathon Schaech, Wentworth Miller.

Passionate irreverence and satire are to be applauded when offered to an audience in the knowing wink and smile that is hoped to produce a smile. It is the acknowledgement that taking life so seriously can be harmful to the soul, and if that satire and cheeky impudence is aimed at yourself, then it makes the experience of the artistic intent, all the greater.

Legends Of Tomorrow: Series Three. Television Review. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)