Cyrano, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Christian Edwards, Sharon Singh, Adam Barlow, Andrew Whitehead, Andy Cryer, Paul Barnhill, Angela Bain, Jessica Dyas, Francesca Mills, Anthony Hunt, Robert Wade, Perry Moore, Michael Hugo.

It is always a match made in heaven, a sense of theatrical gold in which Liverpool audiences always receive so much in terms of gratification, of charm and a story in which you leave the building knowing you have seen theatre at its most complete, personable and down to Earth; no matter the subject, Northern Broadsides and Liverpool theatres are blessed with each other’s company and it is one in which people instinctively know is going to make their week.

Cyrano, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Running Marathons.

You are all running marathons,

or perhaps still able to play

in a local league match

in which you can imagine

you are scoring

the winning goal in the Cup Final,

or perhaps feeling the burn down the gym,

or perhaps swimming the distance

of the channel every year

down the sports centre,

or perhaps doing something

that your body welcomes

with a parade and a joyful smile;

my old and dear friends from school,

I miss you more than ever

when I see you do these things

Running Marathons. full post

(137 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

Tashaki Miyaki, The Dream. Album Review.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To sleep perhaps to dream, the wish of all those who seek sanctuary within the arms of Morpheus, the landscape of the weird and the wonderful, the sway of the song in our head that can move mountains or cause enraged foaming oceans to become still and tranquil; to dream is what separates us from ourselves and if 74is good it can set up the day in the land of living to one where the oceans remain still from start to finish.

Tashaki Miyaki, The Dream. Album Review. full post

(383 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Kalandra, Beneath The Breaking Waves. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There can surely be no argument that Norwegian band Kalandra have been utterly missed in their former adopted home of Liverpool, the sound of the ethereal and the dominating unearthly beauty that resonated throughout their live performances in the city was always a huge pleasure to catch on a night when the world seemed out of kilter or when the heavens were just in the right position to make anything else in the world, for a short while, seem imaginary and not visible.

Kalandra, Beneath The Breaking Waves. E.P. Review. full post

(406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Astles, Live At The Nordic. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A certain special venue and a spine tingling, life affirming performance always seem so intrinsically linked, that one special vibe that was captured for all time and has become imbedded into the psyche of the artist. They undoubtedly will always do a finer performance, give the audience an assured thrill but that one brief moment under the watchful heavens, in the closed vicinity of four walls, in front of an appreciative and respectful audience; that is the point, the standing ground for any future engagement.

Astles, Live At The Nordic. E.P. Review. full post

(406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

A Woodstock Moment In The English Channel.

I think I missed out

somewhere on wild fields

and lazing in grass

as the music played around me

in Woodstock, back in ’69.

The closest I got to such

an Earth shattering

and open eyes moment

was sprawled out

near a cliff by Petit Bot

or perhaps in the bed

of a woman who would

never have made it back

alive from the scenes in Woodstock,

far out man, far out woman,

both gone for a while

as Janis Joplin

or The Who played out

A Woodstock Moment In The English Channel. full post

(140 words, estimated 34 secs reading time)

Aimee Mann, Patient Zero. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Everybody wants to be a star, almost everybody that is and some truly have the potential or the grit to become so and yet for so many others all they truly see is the white sign above the Hollywood hills proclaiming some sort of secret message that this is their destiny, they were born to be famous.

Aimee Mann, Patient Zero. Single Review. full post

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

Quinn Sullivan, Midnight Highway. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The road indeed may be long, it may be one in which the petrol gauge hovers above the empty tank signal for quite some time before finally you come to a shuddering and dramatic halt in some quiet and eerie back water. That road is not for the faint hearted, it is the one in which fables and myths arise and stories of the most unsavoury flavour feature; it is not the Midnight Highway, it is not the one that has the radio playing songs of joy and memory and the comfort of solitude or the reassurance of company along the way and the sound that covers thousands of miles just to take you back to a place you might call home.

Quinn Sullivan, Midnight Highway. Album Review. full post

(441 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Daphne.

The scowl of your elevated Cornish brow

as you lean over the hard won typewriter

and understanding so much of the world

yet deferring

in part

to the men in your life,

that is how I always imagine you

Daphne,

A murderess I cling to

with hands gripped tight,

white knuckled and surrendering

my masculinity, a joke in your

once noble Gallic background,

this I gleaned from you,

I am poor

a servant in your house,

Daphne. full post

(133 words, estimated 32 secs reading time)

Rainbreakers, Rise Up. E.P. Review.


Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We live in interesting times, the world has always found a way to drag down the individual to a point where it feels safe from that person’s hopes, desires and dreams and yet it constantly requires that the border between aspiration and conformity be pushed ever further back, that someone poking their head above the wall to survey their surroundings be taken in hand and silenced. If ever there was a time to Rise Up, whether artistically or physically, then surely before the century gets too bogged down with the guilt of almost fascist thought of trampling down of anything that resembles free will.

Rainbreakers, Rise Up. E.P. Review. full post

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