Shed Seven, Instant Pleasures. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It has been a long, often lonely, wait for any sign of a new Shed Seven album to come out. Break ups and the seemingly self decline of the period in which they were born into, placed together with others in the elaborate styling’s of  Brit-Pop, an anger and a rage that perhaps didn’t truly reflect their persona or the way they played. Some moments in life though are full to the brim of the immediate and the gratifying; some have the Instant Pleasures woven through them like writing in a never ending stick of rock.

Shed Seven, Instant Pleasures. Album Review. full post

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

Like A Kite.

 

Like a kite…

I never learned properly

how to fly the paper chase and nailed

down wood, I would watch

with awe as others flew so high,

tumbled and rose again

in the swirling winds, their lives made happy

because the kite touched the edge

of the perceived sky, where mine limped

and sagged, scrapped the sands and snagged on rocks,

like a kite destined to flump along as I ran,

making my heart beat out of time,

pushing the kite, willing the kite

Like A Kite. full post

(119 words, estimated 29 secs reading time)

The Little Mermaid, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Adam Keast and Francis Tucker in this year’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Panto The Little Mermaid. Photograph by Robert Day, used with kind permission of the Everyman Theatre.

Cast: Danny Burns, Tom Connor, Stephanie Hockley, Adam Keast, Greg Last, Jamie Noar, Elizabeth Robin, Lucy Thatcher, Francis Tucker, Imelda Warren-Green.

Christmas is the time for the Fin-tastic, the spectacle and the promise that the coming year will be an ocean worth swimming in, that the days of floundering will be a dim a distant memory; it is the days when the special, the extraordinary and the beautiful should and must be seen with equal authority, that compassion for all be observed and to every-fin under the sea, a powerful performance and laughter ensured.

The Little Mermaid, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Queen + Adam Lambert, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Adam Lambert at the Echo Arena, Liverpool. November 2017. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

The entrance tickets would have been smouldering away in the pockets of the audience for months, they would have been hidden in secret draws and in the realms of closets, opened every so often just to make sure they were still there, not squirreled away by jealous borrowers or fanatical fans who had not been able to secure a ticket of their own. On a night which temptation was possible, in which the heat of the performance would have burst into raptures of flames; Queen and Adam Lambert made good on a long standing unspoken promise and came to Liverpool to raise the roof.

Queen + Adam Lambert, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(553 words, 1 image, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

The Battle Of The Sexes. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Emma Stone, Steve Carrel, Andrea Riseborough, Natalie Morales, Sarah Silverman, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Elizabeth Shue, Eric Christian Olsen, Fred Armisen, Martha MacIsaac, Lauren Kline, Fidan Manashirova, Jessica McNamee, Ashley Weinhold, Austin Stowell, Wallace Langham, Bridey Elliott, Lewis Pullman.

The Battle Of The Sexes. Film Review. full post

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

A December Wedding.

 

A Registry Office, it could have been anywhere,

but it happened to be there

at that appointed time with you,

a sluggish hour, in which

you confessed soon afterwards

on the train to Waterloo

and the promise of

cinema on that cold December night,

that you secretly had never loved me,

that up until the last minute

you had no intention of turning up

to our intended date and solemn vows.

You seemed surprised when years later,

finally as I cracked under the pressure

A December Wedding. full post

(127 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)

Jane Lee Hooker, Spiritus. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is the relentless and well deserved swagger that can be observed and felt when watching a band from New York City play out their songs on stage in one of the myriad of venues, bars and music halls that light up the brightest place on Earth.

It is a swagger that is not born of boastfulness or the anger of arrogance, but one that infects the artist with just cause; play in New York and you can put reservations down anywhere because the spirit of the city has got inside you and shines vibrantly. It is a with pleasure to see that vibrant intensity pushing the strut, the flag flying high parade of Jane Lee Hooker as they release their new album Spiritus.

Jane Lee Hooker, Spiritus. Album Review. full post

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

Said The Maiden, Here’s A Health. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Said The Maiden bring a balance to musical harmony that is quite unlike anything else that clothes itself in the mystique of Folk music.

It may be a strong statement, one of those in which the listener might struggle to accept as nothing more than an anecdote or wishful thinking on behalf of those who believe they have found a purity of soul and desire to spread the word, and yet deep inside Here’s A Health lays a toast to all that hear the rhythm, all those that utter unconsciously cheers to Jess Distill, Hannah Elizabeth and Kathy Pilkinton as they serenade with the finer elements of English Folk music.

Said The Maiden, Here’s A Health. Album Review. full post

(375 words, 1 image, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Zetor In the Kailyard, Collateral. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Desperate times can bring out the very best in people, it can enhance the artistic endeavour, it can find ways to hold a mirror up to culture and civilisation, to the individual just how their lives have taken a wrong turn, or give them a warning that to carry on the road of ignorance is to convey the message that society no longer matters, that we are just one step away from all being migrants, strangers, uninformed Collateral in a fractured world,

Zetor In the Kailyard, Collateral. Album Review. full post

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

Talk Show, Permanent Honeymoon. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To welcome back Talk Show from the recording studio is to find yourself back in the arms of a linguistic lover who paints pictures with a heartbeat that is so closely entwined to your own needs, that you cannot but help know you are going to be caressed all night long as the memories linger and the sound of wave after wave of a Permanent Honeymoon, one supplied by one of the most attention-grabbing bands of modern times to come along.

Talk Show, Permanent Honeymoon. Album Review. full post

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