Bruce Dickinson, What Does This Button Do? Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The insatiable desire to learn, experiment and not stand still, that is the first thought that might run through the mind when reading Bruce Dickinson’s What Does This Button Do? Yet despite all the glory, the incredible dexterity in which he has juggled the almost impossible, lead singer and unmistakeable voice of Iron Maiden, half a dozen solo albums, writer, maker of film, swashbuckling blade for Great Britain, airline pilot and for all we know would make a finer example of Prime Minister than many of the incumbents to hold office. What comes across is the realisation that at times this is a man who has actually lived; he has not taken a single day for granted and that in itself is more powerful, more genuine, than many autobiographies that seek to address a perspective of a life in the limelight.

Bruce Dickinson, What Does This Button Do? Book Review. full post

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

Come Not Ye Empty Mourners.

She had the type of hair

that Maria Fredriksson

wore without apology,

not that she would ever need to,

not that any of us should be required

to utter,

Come not ye empty mourners,

I boldly cried out loud

in the safety of her stark office,

too young for personal effects

but complimentary on my tattoos

that straddle my arm

as if making the best of a bad deal,

a slight hand job with no verbal kissing,

no sweet talk, she took me to the edge

Come Not Ye Empty Mourners. full post

(189 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

Suzi Quatro, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Iconic perhaps doesn’t do Suzi Quatro justice, the word somehow refuses to roll off the tongue properly, it gets caught up in the mesh of images, in the crossfire of youthful explosion of 70s teenage dreams and admiration of the first woman of Rock, through to the status she truly deserves today.

Suzi Quatro, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

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

The Osmonds, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

When you’ve never experienced a phenomenon it can be quite easy to scoff, to take a look at the moment from outside the pull of the dedicated fan and believe that no matter what you would be immune to sultry tones of the supposed magic which casts its eye over all who linger too long in the mercurial light.

The phenomenon you shy away from, is a perhaps the one that catches you out the most, you ignore it arguably at your own cost and whilst we embrace many a facet, many a band, artist or individual, some we lose sight of, we openly mock or just plain forget.

The Osmonds, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

The Mountain Between Us. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Idris Elba, Kate Winslet, Dermot Mulroney, Beau Bridges, Linda Sorensen, Vincent Gale, Marci T. House.

The Mountain Between Us is such that at times what we perceive is heroic and noble in ourselves can be considered as weak and ineffective by others. Our stance in the wake of calamity is not defined by what we were but who we are shown to be when the ordeal is over. It is a reminder that what stands between the mountains is not space or the yawning chasm but the chance to grow beyond what is real at the time.

The Mountain Between Us. Film Review. full post

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

The Ritual, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Rafe Spall, Robert James- Collier, Arshar Ali, Sam Troughton, Maria Erwolter, Kerri McLean, Paul Reid, Jacob James Beswick, Francesca Mula.

A walk through the woods was perhaps not an issue for travel writer Bill Bryson as he made his way through the Appalachian mountain range, but for the unwary, for the party who go in search of the intrepid when they are not suited to the conditions or the sense of loneliness that comes with such a journey, the woods, the forest, can hold quite a mystical barrier over their well being.

The Ritual, Film Review. full post

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

The Smith And The Lame Horse.

The Smith scratches his bald head

and sighs, exasperated it seems

by the famer’s

and the village’s

lack of understand his point,

that the horse is lame

and needs to be destroyed.

Why shoe a horse good only good for glue

He asks with arrogance in his voice,

educated not for the betterment of

those who seek his service,

but confrontational, weak livered

but full of supposed moral superiority.

He pays no heed to the cries and objections

that the horse can still provide a means

The Smith And The Lame Horse. full post

(156 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Ghalia & Mama’s Boys, Let The Demons Out. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

You might think that you are immune to the power of advertising, to the pull of the human trait of desire for the sound of the Siren which urges you into the minefield of exploration, of searching for tantalising glimpse of a passion you have never experienced before; you might think you are beyond such base thought but reason means nothing when you hear the music of Ghalia & Mama’s Boys for the first time.

Ghalia & Mama’s Boys, Let The Demons Out. Album Review. full post

(398 words, 1 image, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Echopraxia, Pumpkin Palace. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If the words do not exist then at some point they need to be invented, till then the soundtrack to which the maestro performs will always capture the imagination if given the chance to breathe.

It is in the instrumental dance that the words flow, regardless of whether the piece has them in mind or not, for what comes is natural, the voice of electronic or the acoustic will come forth, introduce itself and then finally speak. It is a sentence and a half that spills out of the otherwise silent mouth, that brings forth the answers to the question on just how good a theme can be, especially when it is new, innovative and yet reassuringly and comfortably familiar.

Echopraxia, Pumpkin Palace. E.P. Review. full post

(336 words, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)

Rellik. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Richard Dormer, Jodi Balfour, Paterson Joseph, Laerke Winther, Shannon Tarbet, Ray Stevenson, Kieran Bew, Michael Wildman, Joseph Macnab, Peter Coe, Alex Gillson, Tuncay Gunes, Susan Hughes, Faye Castelow, Mimi Ndiweni, Annabel Bates, Rosalind Eleazar, Paul Rhys, Tanya Reynolds, Clive Russell, Charlotte Dylan, Michael Shaeffer, Clare Holman, Rebecca Lacey, Reece Ritchie.

Rellik. Television Review. full post

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