The Cinelli Brothers, Babe Please Set Your Alarm. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If not now, then when? There is always a job to do, a chore to update or a task that requires your attention, however in the best of worlds they would be dismissed, they would play second fiddle to the creative urge and the often snide remarks or frustration that comes with such yearnings, they would be relegated to the muted and the silenced. We set ourselves goals or the faint whisper of dreams but we rarely fully achieve them, Time having this peculiar habit of making sure we forget to wind our clock onwards, to set the alarm of when completion dates are due.

The Cinelli Brothers, Babe Please Set Your Alarm. Album Review. full post

(476 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Ma Polaine’s Great Decline, The Outsider. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

If you haven’t felt like an outsider in life then perhaps you have either been spared great pain and looks of pity and resentment, or with greater depth, you have looked upon the masses blindly following the latest craze and fashions and thanked whichever deity looks after your soul or your own reason, that you are not part of the experiment. Whichever way you look upon it, being The Outsider is either a blessing or a curse in which to live with.

Ma Polaine’s Great Decline, The Outsider. Album Review. full post

(451 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

The Rumble Underneath Your Feet.

Just

because

the ground shakes

when the Elephant

trundles past, its trunk swinging

from side to side,

does not mean that the Pachyderm

is responsible

for the Earthquake you feel.

 

Ian D. Hall 2018

Permanent link to this post (38 words, estimated 9 secs reading time)

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Music Room, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Little Sparrow at the Music Rooms in Liverpool. April 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

It is natural to miss someone, to let time go past in such a manner that you find the song, that special reason you were drawn to them as a human being in the first place, takes upon itself to be treated like a fine shroud, delicate and interwoven with the days and weeks of since last you saw them, woven with gold silk, the voice that would have captured the soul of Homer’s Odysseus, still resonating around the concert venues of Liverpool and beyond.

Little Sparrow, Gig Review. Music Room, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(528 words, 1 image, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Elfin Bow, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Elfin Bow at the Philharmonic Hall’s Music Rooms. April 2018. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

 

The Philharmonic Hall Music Room is a place where the song that lifts and lilts, that raises hope as well as the roof, is to be seen with a sense of honour and privilege, the dispensing of the day’s trials and injustice, the scream that builds up inside your mind, is let loose, carefully, gently, the kettle that could not stop whistling is reduced to silence and awe as musicians such as Elfin Bow take to the stage and perform their vigil to impart a subtle sense of well being and many a great song.

Elfin Bow, Gig Review. Music Rooms, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Ordeal By Innocence. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Bill Nighy, Luke Treadaway, Anthony Boyle, Anna Chancellor, Morven Christie, Crystal Clarke, Alice Eve, Matthew Goode, Ella Purnell, Eleanor Tomlinson, Brian McCardie, Luke Murray, Hayden Robertson, Catriona McNicoll, Abigail Conteh, Rhys Lambert, Frances Grey.

In the world of Agatha Christie nobody is innocent, all have a dark secret they wish to keep hidden from view and it is in the capturing of the human capacity for deceit that makes Ms. Christie, almost 50 years after her death, one author from the 20th Century who makes the reader understand with absolute certainty that death is but a companion in the shadow of our hearts when it comes to the bitterness, jealousy and greed we allow to dwell in our souls.

Ordeal By Innocence. Television Review. full post

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

Marcella: Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Anna Friel, Jamie Bamber, Nicholas Pinnock, Ray Panthaki, Jack Doolan, Charlie Covell, Sophie Brown, Keith Allen, Nigel Planer, Jason Hughes, Victoria Smurfit, Peter Sullivan, Amy Dawson, Josh Herdman, Harriet Cains, Victoria Broom, Tamzin Malleson, Vivienne Gibbs, Andrew Tiernan, Lucy Speed, Michael Wildman, Clara Indrani, Yolanda Kettle, Asher Flowers, Imogen Faires, Aldo Maland, Oaklee Pendergast.

The mind is an impressive machine, capable of so much, of inspiring absolutes and able to conquer all with reason, the heavens, the stars and its surroundings, yet often it is missing the vital information required to see the whole picture, to grasp the data shown and act upon it accordingly and deal with life without breaking down, without feeling as though you’re losing your mind.

Marcella: Series Two. Television Review. full post

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

World War, Stupid.

 

Briefly, several suns light up the horizon

and burn the world, this fragile land

torn by hands, ripped apart

on the consensus of one

behind the black door, no prize,

and as enough money is spent destroying

our souls that would feed

and give shelter to the homeless,

to the child in our schools, food to eat,

nurses the reason to feel valued,

but oh no, not now, not in our name,

we want you to hate today, this phantom trick,

to make you scared, and then the accusations

World War, Stupid. full post

(207 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)

The Last Ship, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Richard Fleeshman, Charlie Hardwick, Joe McGann, Frances McNamee, Joe Caffrey, Matt Corner, Anne Grace, Sean Kearns, Katie Moore, Charlie Richmond, Parisa Shahmir, Kevin Wathen, Marvin Ford, Penelope Woodman, James William-Pattison, Michael Blair, Susan Fay, Orla Gormley.

There have been many shameful periods in the history of the country, especially since World War Two ended and the thought of big Government in all its forms has risen its various ugly and uncaring heads to take on big organisations and labour.

The Last Ship, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(582 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: James Templeton, Sharon Byatt, John Schumacher, Lucy Litchfield, Nick Wymer, Ed Barr Sim, Sam Donovan, Timothy Lucas, Chloe Taylor, Daniel Taylor, Lenny Wood, Neville Cann, Fra Gunn, Faye Griffiths, Emma Webber, Hannah Rankin, Lily Davies, James Ledsham, Luke Lucas.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. (2018). full post

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