The Rainbow Connection, Theatre Review. Downstairs At The Royal Court, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Angela Simms, Danny O’Brien.

Love, so the poets, the romantics and the occasional purposeful song-writer will attest, is indeed a many splendid thing; it is the joy of lost reason, of the possible loss of everything you thought about yourself and the conquering of the soul. Love isn’t about the physical act between people, love is what you are willing to do for another human being, what you are prepared to sacrifice to make someone happy, to look upon their face and hope for all the colours that a rainbow can provide, love is the most reckless and untrustworthy emotion and we should strive to see it happen more often and with whomever.

The Rainbow Connection, Theatre Review. Downstairs At The Royal Court, Liverpool. full post

(515 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Lordi, Sexorcism. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

When you have perfected the art of controversy, even if done so with tongue firmly in cheek, the only thing that can stop you from achieving further notoriety is the limit of your own imagination and the depth in which you wish people to see you dwell. Controversy is the bitterest aspects of fame but in many ways it is also the most heartening, it is the testament to the human psyche that sees society applaud those willing to push boundaries and art and be cynical as time goes by of those that played the game with padding underneath their broad shoulders.

Lordi, Sexorcism. Album Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Keeping Faith. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Eve Myles, Mark Lewis Jones, Hannah David, Matthew Gravelle, Bradley Freegard, Mali Harries, Aneirin Hughes, Rhian Morgan, Eiry Thomas, Catherine Ayers, Alex Harries, Suzanne Packer, Betsan Llwyd, Kizzy Crawford, Colin Murtagh, Mark Preston, Menna Trussler, Pinar Ögün.

To trust someone is to understand their faults and understand that they may let you down, nobody is perfect after all and we all have the chance to be put in the way of temptation, be it in the way of sex, money or greed, we all the opportunity to be exploited for our mistakes and lack of at the time judgement, but it is to love someone when you know you might get hurt, when the foundations of their actions will cause you to see them in a different light.

Keeping Faith. Television Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Heather Downie, Nae Sweets For Shy Bairns. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The image of the cherub performing a dynamic harp solo to the masses is not one that readily springs to mind, it is an image best preserved for the music room in the back passages of the Vatican, the one where you might hope the Pontiff and his staff take on the world’s finest musicians and sing glory to their name.

Heather Downie, Nae Sweets For Shy Bairns. Album Review. full post

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

Call, Terminated.

 

The face was smashed, cracked

and damaged from where

it had hit the floor with a mighty,

sickening thud, it still held life though,

radiating through the near dark

of the stairs where it lay, though how long

before it drained out,

private phone numbers

mixing and congealing

with internet browsing history

and flirty text messages

to her husband, the see you later hun’s

and the inevitable three xxxs,

the phone had fallen

or had it been pushed,

as the face drained of its icons

Call, Terminated. full post

(136 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

James Scott Bullard, Full Tilt Boogie. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Whilst you may never be the same person from heartbeat to heartbeat, the measure of your life is one of a continuous journey tempered by the knowledge that beliefs, opinions and thoughts change, that a person can grow in the light or shrink back into the dusk, what never goes into hiding is the soul of the artist in us all.

James Scott Bullard, Full Tilt Boogie. Album Review. full post

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

Danny Bryant, Revelation. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The toughest of all challenges comes when we lose those to whom our faith and love is all we require to live, when the right words of patience and honesty are missing because the heartbeat that guided us has become still, a quiet and motionless drumbeat that has come to a halt. In that challenge we dig deep, we find a way to perhaps resurrect or frame a memory from out of this air, we dig deep, we bind ourselves to the recollections of what their advice to us truly meant and by doing so we find the Revelation of spirit inside of us, the spirit that makes us overcome.

Danny Bryant, Revelation. Album Review. full post

(424 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

This Cowardly Lion.

I am a coward

and your opinion of me

matters,

I wish it wasn’t so,

I wish I could just

forget

and erase, expunge with ease

all those times

I wanted to make you proud

to know me,

to have once raised a glass in my honour

when I wasn’t there

to defend myself

from your toast

and despite

it all,

see me not as bruised, vanity tinged

and needing an occasional memory

of what I meant to you.

 

This Cowardly Lion. full post

(87 words, estimated 21 secs reading time)

Toto, Gig Review. Bridgewater Hall, Manchester.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

You can wait a lifetime for the right moment in which you believe that the fates align, or you can seize the opportunity offered, brave the inclement, and seemingly never ending Hell driven, weather and relish the thought of seeing one of those bands that always conjures images of the definition of American A.O.R., of a time when M.T.V. was actually dedicated to music, when bands with the power of a ripping chord and introspective lyrics ruled the airwaves, Kansas, Chicago, Boston and for the fortunate ones on this journey round the Sun, the revolution of the night, Toto.

Toto, Gig Review. Bridgewater Hall, Manchester. full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Jack And The Beanstalk, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Ray Quinn, Lindzi Germain, Claire Simmo, Lewis Pryor, Michael Chapman, Mia Molloy.

The Pantomime is an institution, one of first experiences for many to whom the theatre is a haven to be preserved, of silliness and beauty, of hearing that loud series of giggles and laughter from younger audiences before they become self-conscious and trapped within the confines of fitting behaviour. It is when you see this in action during the Pantomime that it reminds you of what brought you into this fascinating and beguiling world in the first place, magic, the wonderful world of the delightful thrill, where anything is possible and the overall enchantment that the young mind grasps onto with relish.

Jack And The Beanstalk, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)