The Darkness: Live At Hammersmith. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Stoke the cannons with a perfectly timed raised eyebrow, load up the molten balls with enough innuendo to take apart a battleship on the high seas and set the fuse going with the dogged appreciation. The reminder that Rock and Roll can be entertaining as well good for the heart and let rip, Open Fire, for one band with a sultry, Cavalier smile and an ear for the motif have returned better than ever and if any live album of the genre is worth investigating then The Darkness: Live at Hammersmith is surely it.

The Darkness: Live At Hammersmith. Album Review. full post

(409 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Orchards, Losers/Lovers. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a certain delight that surrounds Brighton based band Orchards, the steady release of singles confirming the positive creativity that comes from an inseparable friendship, a meaning that comes from a shared history that stretches back across the recent folds of Time and in which the concept of love flourishes. It is idea that sees the band’s new release Losers/Lovers become a fascination, a regard for the enthral, one in which the letters in which sealed, and sometimes unrequited, amour is passionately held.

Orchards, Losers/Lovers. E.P. Review. full post

(361 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Bob Stone, Missing Beat. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

As all writers know, Time makes its own rules and quite often doesn’t adhere to them, Time is able to ridicule humanity, make fun of the way it plans and schemes and then sees it comes crashing down, a heartbeat missed, a skip in the fabric of time, and suddenly, as Pink Floyd rightly sang, “Ten years have got behind you.”

Bob Stone, Missing Beat. Book Review. full post

(486 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Your Best Guess, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 8.5/10

Cast: Chris Thorpe, Jorge Andrade.

There are many futures that become the legend and home for the question of what if? A certain place in to which the once thought possible becomes a loose strand fluttering in the wind of uncertainty, hangs in the air for the realm of the hypothetical and to come and gather it up. Speculative fiction is rife with such stories, the turn of a single feather, the mark of a wrong turn, all leading to roads and arguably other futures in which Your Best Guess is as good as anyone’s but makes for the most riveting of tales and astonishing deep thought.

Your Best Guess, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

The 1300 Year Instruction.

 

The rare writing on the Cornish slate

is older than the notion of England,

as it sits now in Tintagel Castle,

a display for the excited

and the learned to ponder over,

it’s meaning lost in Latin and ancient script,

but it must be gleaned in this land of legends,

of old Dumnonia and the last King of Dungarth,

that the script must only contain one message;

Do not put carrots in the pasties.

 

Ian D. Hall 2018

Permanent link to this post (82 words, estimated 20 secs reading time)

Crackling.

Roasted Hog,

basted and the cut, succulent,

dripping fat on the stoked

fires, upon which I feel

the burn

like flesh deposits crinkle

and leave me with crackling

on my back,

a taste of cooked meat

hangs in the air, sickly and putrid,

a cannibalised flesh, rotten

now from the inside out,

so bad that even a black fly stops and hovers

for a while and refuses to land,

no blue bottles, just maggots

upon my skin

today.

 

Ian D. Hall 2018

Crackling. full post

(85 words, estimated 20 secs reading time)

The Cruel Trick.

 

It is the cruelest trick,

to offer someone a future,

a second chance in which

to make things right

in their heart; this now is the path

before me,

a cruel trick played out,

a future denied,

and last night I tried to dream

but all I saw was the face

of the ideal and the possible,

taken away.

 

Ian D. Hall 2018

Permanent link to this post (67 words, estimated 16 secs reading time)

Various Artists, Destination: Fellside Recordings 1976-2018. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Eventually you come face to face with what you have achieved, and you see the greatness that others have known for a long time, that the selfless act of promotion in others leads to a far great spiritual richness than can ever be realised; and after 42 years at the helm of Fellside Recordings it would be perhaps considered time for the company and artists to look back on all that has accomplished and smile at the triumph of the endeavour.

Various Artists, Destination: Fellside Recordings 1976-2018. Album Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Chris Tavener, Is He Joking? (Live). Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Is He Joking?, regardless of whether Chris Tavener is or isn’t, whether this musician who reminds so much of the great Billy Connolly in his appreciation of raising a smile, and does much to promote the beautiful sound of innocent laughter during a gig, has in him the temperament and class to withstand comparisons to such luminaries of the circuit is beyond a joke, it shouldn’t even be brought up, for in Chris Tavener, the only conclusion you should arguably reach, is that he is a genius.

Chris Tavener, Is He Joking? (Live). Album Review. full post

(382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Big Boy Bloater & The Limits, Pills. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The Blues for such a long time seemed to be destined for the scrapheap of musical history, at the very least it could have been seen as the last preserve of a fading generation, kept alive by its reputation and some of the more enlightened souls to whom had the genre’s best interests at heart. The slow burn out, the limit of fascination and fandom reached its zenith and was now on the verge of a spectacular collapse, one in which the Muse would have strained to give it C.P.R. but which would have seen its spirit depart with dignity, if not a new modern ear enjoying it.

Big Boy Bloater & The Limits, Pills. Album Review. full post

(395 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)