Mark Thomas: Check Up Our NHS @70, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * * *

We never fully appreciate anything until either it has been taken away from us, or we find out the hard way how valued the service is. When the National Health Service was created, people fought hard to create something that would not only be the envy of the world, but which might inspire other countries, other politicians and leaders, to actually care about their citizens’ health, it has been a long struggle, and in Britain it seems that it is always under threat, targeted by groups of people who wish to see it dismantled and torn apart, delivering medicine and care for a price which many cannot simply afford.

Mark Thomas: Check Up Our NHS @70, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Pop, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Cast: Katie George, Lauren Foster.

If the 1980s was a decade of direct contrasts between social hedonism and the reality of the action taken communities as one by one the life blood of decades old services and the jobs that were dismantled and the people left to rot on the dole, then the mid to late 90s were a period in which lies and deceptions were given public backing as a kind of false hope of a fairer society was raised like a mantra, a chant aired and repeated and one that has joined the 1980s debauchery enjoyed by some as nothing more than an exposing of the personal greed that we all believe is ours to enjoy by right.

Pop, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Manfred Mann Radio Days Volume 1: The Paul Jones Era. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 8.5/10

It is perhaps easy to forget that the music of the 1960s were more than just four lads from Liverpool, easy and honest, after all, wherever you go in the world, wherever you may travel, a common unifying bond can be easily brought to any conversation by humming a few bars of any number of songs created by The Beatles; it is a truism that defies any other comparison, it also neglects the same adulation that should be placed at the door of bands such as The Who, The Small Faces, the early laid back beauty of Blues infused Fleetwood Mac and of course Manfred Mann.

Manfred Mann Radio Days Volume 1: The Paul Jones Era. Album Review. full post

(571 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

The Askew Sisters, Enclosure. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

The world around us is not an illusion, but it can be described as fake, a sense of the limitation and imitation which we believe we require to breathe within, a shell which has hardened our souls and keeps us captive, a place where we become ever more disconnected from because we believe that the true face of humanity and its place on Earth is one of ugly thoughts and actions. We have become happy in our Enclosure, and the circle keeps on getting smaller, our pen more restricted.

The Askew Sisters, Enclosure. Album Review. full post

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

Katie Spencer, Weather Beaten. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 8.5/10

Poetry is not a thing, it is not unobtainable or accessible, it is the bed rock and foundation of everything that you observe, it frames your vision, and whether you find solace in its meaning or simply get agitated because of the supposed rules of engagement, it cannot, and will not, be denied its place in your heart.

Katie Spencer, Weather Beaten. Album Review. full post

(376 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Greg Antista And The Lonely Streets, Shake, Stomp And Stumble. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

Billy Joel perhaps said it best when he observed that, “You could dance and still look tough”, for nothing gets in the way of a community when the music starts, when the three minute jive insists that you join in and take in the mean streets but the tender hearted with the same glorious breath. For the world may seem like a collection of bones being rattled in a tin, the noise loud and frightening but instead it is the sweet serenade of flexed muscles sweating out a tune in which the audience has no choice but to observe and to take part in, the Shake, Stomp And Stumble of unrestricted melody.

Greg Antista And The Lonely Streets, Shake, Stomp And Stumble. Album Review. full post

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

Andy Quick, Diamond Sounds. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

A marriage that is of different persuasions quite often fail to ignite serious passions, one side pulling in one direction, the other finding their needs overturned in favour of compromise, of wanting the very best that can be achieved, but knowing deep down that the mine they want to dig in search of Diamond Sounds is one that might forever elude them.

Andy Quick, Diamond Sounds. E.P. Review. full post

(337 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

Idlewild, Interview Music. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 8.5/10

In the end it comes to more than just emotion, be it raw, unfiltered and tender, to carry the sense of the powerful into the hearts of all who may hear the rallying cry set down by artists of all persuasions. More than emotion, more than just the ability to give the audience hope, it is has to find a way into the soul and sting, like the comfort afforded by the realisation that the person you might have called friend turns out to be someone to avoid, at least you understand the lesson that has been learned when conversation turns against you.

Idlewild, Interview Music. Album Review. full post

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

Siren’s Song, Without The Fear. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *

To live Without The Fear one must surely have confronted the demons in the mind and found them to be lacking substance, to have laughed at the inconsequential and witnessed fear shrink and become nothing more than a nuisance to be scolded in much the same way that we hold the same measure of account and disdain to ignorance. These twin monsters, if left unchecked, sap at the strength and will, and then as the Siren’s Song is enticingly heard and grasped for in an effort to be saved, fear can be seen to become overwhelming and bitter.

Siren’s Song, Without The Fear. Single Review. full post

(374 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Locate Your Lips, For Kenny. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To be born in anger is to find that the universe in its infinite wisdom has something truly special waiting up its sleeve for you, to be remembered when the anger has left to be replaced by calm, by the spirit of the times, and if placed in the hands of those who remember your brilliance after you have left for the bigger stages to come, will shout your name from the highest vantage point and demand that the party be continued in your honour.

Locate Your Lips, For Kenny. Album Review. full post

(554 words, 1 image, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)