Endeavour: Quartet. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Sean Rigby, Anton Lesser, Dakota Blue Richards, Lewis Peek, James Bradshaw, Abigail Thaw, Sara Vickers, Caroline O’ Neil, Sam Clement, Phil Daniels, Madeleine Worrall, Caroline Martin, Aldo Maland, Jojo Macari, Lilly Lesser, Michael Simkins, Felix Scott, Andrew Buckley, Barnaby Taylor, Mark Arden, Louis Strong, Thomas Panay, Anson Boon, David James Fray.

 

If there is ever an emotive subject other than murder to bring into the world of the armchair detective, then it surely has to be the prospect of spies and counter espionage, the two realms of dark forces combined making a seemingly perfect storm in which to pit the wits against and to see who comes out on top; the writer or the viewer.

Endeavour: Quartet. Television Review. full post

(431 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Collateral, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Carey Mulligan, Jeany Spark, Nicola Walker, John Simm, Nathaniel Martello-White, Ahd, Billie Piper, Kae Alexander, Hayley Squires, Judy Namir, Ben Miles, Orla Brady, Rob Jarvis, Mark Preston, George Georgiou, John Heffernan, Shawn Dixon, Lati Gbaja, Buppha Witt, Molly Simm, Nicola Duffett, Kim Medcalf, Vineeta Rishi, Siobhan McSweeney, Guy List, Richard McCabe, Tom Turner, Jacqueline Boatswain, Robert Portal, Alais Lawson, Brian Vernal, Deborah Findlay, Nick Mohammed, Tony Way, Alex Reid, Adrian Lukis.

Collateral, Television Review. full post

(477 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Strike: Career Of Evil. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Burke, Holliday Granger, Andrew Brooke, Ben Crompton, Jessica Gunning, Matt King, Kerr Logan, Killian Scott, Neil Maskell, Kierston Wareing, Fern Deacon, Antonia Kinlay, Nicholas Agnew, Mollie Peacock, Cosima Shaw, Ann Akin, Suzanne Burden, Kirsty Dillon, Ella James, Emmanuella Cole, Archie Wrightman, Paul Butterworth, Joe Johnsey, Michelle Bonnard.

The human mind is such a complex organism that nobody quite understands, despite mountains of published papers and theories, why anyone would contemplate, let alone endeavour to make a career out of doing despicable acts, a vocation of evil.

Strike: Career Of Evil. Television Review. full post

(445 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Slapped Bass Treated With Love.

 

When I was a boy, you were one

of the men I wanted to be, punk attitude

wrapped up in a skin of pounding music,

and whilst I could not play bass,

or any type of instrument, I still wanted

that naked, fire driven approach, to be angry,

to dwell in me; mean, moody and magnificent,

a bad boy with a good heart, now I

watch you on stage and you slap your bass,

you treat it rough and I think

can I do that with words, a Kerouac love, mean

Slapped Bass Treated With Love. full post

(183 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: Interview With Blancmange’s Neil Arthur.

History recalls those who leave joy in the hearts of others with fondness, a certain measure of tipped hat in acknowledgement of the good times provided and the sense of serenity they leave, almost freely, in their wake. History used to view such things perhaps as being unimportant, of being secondary to the writing of events, of generals and kings, of warfare and queens, politicians and plagues; thankfully since the 1950s it has also in abundance properly recorded the thoughts of artists, of musicians, of the drama witnessed from those whose words speak volumes, whose music stirs the passions we wish to see raised.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: Interview With Blancmange’s Neil Arthur. full post

(2281 words, estimated 9:07 mins reading time)

Stick In The Wheel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Stick In The Wheel at the Music Rooms of the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Pursue the secrets of the inscription long enough and you will find hope, salvation of spirit, or if you are fortunate and the gods of the quest are with you, another adventure in which to delve straight into, to place your trust into the symbols, gestures and lyrical sense of groove in which the hardiest of explorers light and a candle, pull back the veil and shout from the heavens that it is a marvel to behold and that you should Follow Them True.

Stick In The Wheel, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall Music Rooms, Liverpool. full post

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

Those Two Weeks, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Jackie Jones, Mike Sanders, Katie King, James Ledsham, Sam Walton, Daniel Cassidy, Lisa McMahon.

Life and Time hang always in the balance, a single moment can hang forever in the air; it can be as inconsequential as a gnat’s heartbeat to an Elephant’s ear, it can be as earth-shattering and historic as a single gunshot in Dallas. Each moment we live through has the potential to be remembered for ever. It is though the build up to that instant where time and life clash for a brief while, where they converge and separate leaving the devastation in its wake; it is in the ability to look at what happened before that makes us attempt to make sense of the moment later on, when the next dawn has risen.

Those Two Weeks, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(525 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

The Rheingans Sisters, Bright Field. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Where is the dividing line in which Art comes out in the open and acknowledges itself as being part of someone’s life? Like the school boy who writes love sick poetry for the girls he wishes to hold and kiss, for the girl who dreams of dancing infront of audience in a theatre full of appreciative glances and applause, to the woman who seeks out a truth by writing sentences and exposing the crime in her heart; all is Art, all is worthy, but it is when it is open to the elements and uncovered for another person’s eyes that it cuts through the gossamer veil and reveals the desire to be found in a Bright Field full of passionate artistic flowers.

The Rheingans Sisters, Bright Field. Album Review. full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

A Burnt Meadow.

 

And now the meadow’s black, burnt

to a cinders that will not

see the ball or the glitz and glamour

of the magazine, the photographer

squeezing out one more frame,

one more plea of pout baby, look

down the lens and think of England

as you smoulder and create electricity,

the meadow is black, corrupt, shameful,

shameless, the meadow primed for real

estate development to sell more dreams

of home ownership, till the banks come knocking

at the door, rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat, economy

to scale, a large slug festering, dripping coins

A Burnt Meadow. full post

(170 words, estimated 41 secs reading time)

Council Depot Blues, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2018).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jake Abraham, Roy Brandon, Paul Broughton, Lindzi Germain, Howard Gray, Phil Hearne, James Nelson-Joyce, Andrew Schofield.

We all count down the hours as a big day arrives, the end of the week and the chance to sit down with the feet up in the comfy chair or enjoy a holiday in which there is nothing to do but soak up the sun and breathe in the different air. Until the day of final reckoning when the chance to say goodbye to all those we have ever worked alongside, come rain or shine, come snow, hail, biting winds and the odd moments when the heat has driven us to distraction, leaves us with Time on our hands to think, and it is that thinking that makes the clock tick louder as it reminds us, we have nothing to do today and that we miss being part of the routine.

Council Depot Blues, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2018). full post

(475 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)