Andrew Sheppard, Steady Your Aim. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Laud the man who knows the value of the phrase, steady…aim…aim…aim, never one who is bound by the rashness of getting the job done, who rushes to miss the point of witness the slow move which captivates and inspires. Steady Your Aim, look down the lens for as long as possible, take mental notes of the sight before you, breathe normally and get ready for the kick back which tears at the muscles of your shoulder, relish your soul and be thankful for the Country in which allows you the freedom to take an unhurried snapshot with a camera in which to feel the memories of the scene before you.

Andrew Sheppard, Steady Your Aim. Album Review. full post

(437 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Mike Tucker, Doctor Who: Diamond Dogs. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are those who will stare into the eyes of a soul who craves excitement and adventure from a young age and believe that they are looking into the heart of the demented and troubled soul. That to have a map on the wall when the heart has barely started to beat in time, the mouth that openly suggests that to go on holiday is not to stare at a beach or order the same food as you would get in a crumbling old chip shop somewhere in the Midlands, is the words of fools.

Mike Tucker, Doctor Who: Diamond Dogs. Book Review. full post

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

The Extreme Puritan.

 

Soon, the extreme Puritan

will rub their hands in private glee,

it doesn’t end with a Victorian

painting being removed,

nor does it end well,

we are being judged for a laugh

we had that has now been forgotten,

except by those keeping score

and aren’t they just

doing the black and white dressed

authority figures of the past

justice, everything a crime, erased

and expunged, obliterated and left

in a bunker underground, growing feral,

becoming bitter,

till one day fashion dictates an innuendo,

The Extreme Puritan. full post

(107 words, estimated 26 secs reading time)

The Space Between Us Both.

Six rows in front of me,

as I was facing backwards, both

slumped back looking down

we never made eye contact, never saw

face to face, though cheek by jowl,

our eyeballs never saw each other

at the same time,

my friend, what held your attention

instead of me giving you mine,

new headphones I noticed,

drowning out the noise

and the half mouthed, silent hello

as we sat there on the 53 in to town,

each in our own worlds of wonder,

not seeing the meteor racing past

The Space Between Us Both. full post

(99 words, estimated 24 secs reading time)

Her Benny, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Brindle, Janet Cowley, Lindzi Germain, John McGrellis, Elizabeth Baxendale, Daniel Cox, Georgia Chadwick, David Thomas, Owen Doolan, Molly Large, Danielle Gorle, Owen Newsome, Abigail Bradbury, Jack Brown, Catherine Devine, Elliot Hanna, Laura Hesketh, Molly Hurst, Joey Jennings, Lisle des Landes, Victoria Platt, Tony Prince.

Her Benny, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

The Waitress, Never Where I Want To Be. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To class anything as interesting within the sphere of Art is perhaps counter-productive to the medium as a whole; it is far too simplistic, it engages nothing and is worth exactly the same. It drops the listener or the artistic voyeur into the same realm as the school class room, the teacher trying their best to impart knowledge to a child whose shrug of the shoulders suggests that it isn’t to them, that they, like many others are only in the room because they have to be.

The Waitress, Never Where I Want To Be. Single Review. full post

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

A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer. Photograph by Mark Douet.

Cast: Eva Alexander, Bryony Kimmings, Gemma Storr, Lottie Vallis, Lara Veitch, Elexi Walker.

There is always going to be an emotional stance when it comes to Cancer, we are all either directly or indirectly affected by this disease, almost impossible to not know someone who has been changed by the feeling of having something alien inside them, influenced in their thinking or who has in modern world sense, fought it. It is that very sense of the phrase fought that is the emotive part for some, and for Bryony Kimmings it is a word that doesn’t sit right, it implies perhaps fighting, war, taking up arms in a body of troubles and ultimately in a war, nobody wins, there are only casualties.

A Pacifist’s Guide To The War On Cancer, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Inside No 9: And The Winner Is… Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, Phoebe Sparrow, Kenneth Cranham, Noel Clarke, Zoe Wannamaker, Fenella Woolgar.

There is always the excitement of the award season, the chance to hedge your knowledge of the subject at hand and become, for a moment, respectful of the judge’s decision, or to swallow hard, slap the top of your forehead and wonder where on Earth the reasoning and intelligence went when the victor is announced. And the winner is… sometimes the person you least expect it to be and the thought of back-handers, future projects and who was fancying who, who owed who, who wanted who, and the winner is, sometimes already decided..

Inside No 9: And The Winner Is… Television Review. full post

(530 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

The Three Fold Man.

 

The three fold man, I see you

in mahogany mirrors, two either side,

of the age I am now, the boy

to the left, coloured in regretful sepia

and fading from view, the old,

untapped and unseen but hoped to be,

still invisible, a sign tapped out in Braille,

don’t count your chickens sonny,

I should be grateful in wasn’t in semaphore green

or the malignancy of burning bush confrontation,

thou shalt not…

this three-fold man, remember me,

here in the middle

looking back at you.

The Three Fold Man. full post

(94 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)

The Play That Goes Wrong, Theatre Review. Storyhouse Theatre, Chester.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Gabriel Paul, Catherine Dryden, Jake Curran, Steven Rostance, Kazeem Tosin Amore, Benjamin McMahon, Elena Valentine, Bobby Hirston, Liam Horrigan, David Kristopher-Brown, Loisa Sexton, Laura White.

The British obsession with murder is not about the act itself but the conviction on behalf of the reader or the artistic voyeur to see the restoration of justice, the balancing of the scales, done and unarguably dusted. The most despicable of crimes and acts against another person is everywhere, on television, in films, in literature, it seems the British cannot get enough and it is why murder is a popular genre to be part of; everybody wants to be the armchair detective.

The Play That Goes Wrong, Theatre Review. Storyhouse Theatre, Chester. full post

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