Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Sean Rigby, Dakota Blue Richards, James Bradshaw, Anton Lesser, Caroline O’Neil, Daniel Attwell, Nicon Caraman, Geff Francis, Chris Fulton, Natalie Grady, Dawn Hope, Ty Hurley, Eleanor Inglis, Adam James, Katherine Kingsley, James Laurenson, Robert Lucklay, Abram Rooney, Gillian Saker, Tristan Sturrock, Abigail Thaw, Ruby Thomas, Sara Vickers, Tony Paul West.
Was it possible to feel jealousy
after so long of denying it existed
in my psyche, as I watched the young
poet, the woman of words
pour her life into my beaker
on a Monday night and make it overflow.
I don’t find jealousy attractive,
it is an emotional state
that leads to a rotten core
and Hamlet is no relation of mine
and his uncle an excuse to behave
like a bastard.
I muse all night and thankfully,
jealousy is not the cause, to find
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Una Stubbs, Rupert Graves, Mark Gatiss, Amanda Abbington, Louise Brealey, Toby Jones, Lindsay Duncan, Sian Brooke, Asheq Akhtar, Usman Akram, Sharon Cherry Ballard, Miranda Hennessy, Lee Kemp, David Kirkbride, Tom Williams, Chris Wilson.
The rich and powerful can always be counted upon to act how they like, that in cases of responsibility, of holding back and restraint of acts of cruelty, they believe they are untouchable, above the law, both physically and morally; it is how corruption breeds, how money will always look after money and in the end how everybody lies just to keep in line, to toe the official version.
Like Samson, my hair
is not for sale,
mine though is not a sign
of heroic strength,
masculinity of its alleged highest form,
more in the way
that when it is short
I look like a thug
in the mirror, polished
but with dusty edges of time
throwing back images of the one hair cut
I forced myself to have
and how
in the end
I just stood anonymous
in the crew.
Ian D. Hall 2017
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There is almost nothing that can touch the feeling of the unhappy or dejected cry in the dark that is wrapped in the tune of the unforgiving and delighted jig; the dichotomy of two states of mind that we find ourselves in when something upsets us but we know it is for the greater good that it happens.
Over my shoulder and barely registering
the rolling news of football updates
and possible giant killing acts
without mercy, I read
your poem and I feel the kick
in the guts, the relentless
cry of foul and the whistle
of finger typed agony
as your blood lays invisible
in my palms.
Let her breathe I urge inwardly,
let her feel this emotion
and all around me is silent,
the publican’s wife sweeps the table clean,
my untouched tea now fast evaporating,
draining,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
What can be first viewed as parasitic, can actually be a mutual sounding board, the two way street of musical harmony wrapped up in a symbiotic relationship; for without someone playing the music that you like, you don’t keep them performing; the audience’s sometimes crude crocodile smile may ensnare some unfortunate bands, grab them so tight that they can hardly breathe but for The Parasite Syndicate and their self-titled debut album, the process is two way, obliterating, powerful and creatively devastating.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Never learn the Tricks Of The Trade, learn the trade, learn the skill and make the very best of it completely, for in the whisper of knowledge stands reason, stands beauty and fulfilment and it something that Dipper Malkin, a superb duo of Folk musicians with a proud pedigree, have gone all out to prove as they give willingly a new lease of life to an instrument from the baroque period, viola d’amore, and the influence that comes with such grand expression.
My inner adult
refuses to join in the games
saying that tiddlywinks
and marbles
are but amusements for children.
It sits in solace, whilst the outer child
smiles and pokes fun,
creates rhymes, draws illusion
and wonders at magic tricks, never understanding
how they truly work,
and yet the bullet trick is the one the adult,
hiding in the shell,
giggles and hopes
will pop a balloon, latex burst with a bang.
Ian D. Hall 2017
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Aggression in Metal is nothing without self control, without the ability to pull back from the edge without tipping into the fire of unlikeable self promotion; it doesn’t happen a great deal in other genres but in the smouldering furnace of Metal it can be a case of too much reliance on the genre’s image can be a self fulfilling prophecy. You only have to look at Metallica, one of the true heavy weights of the field to understand how too much can lead to some fans feeling alienation from their former idols between ’93 and 2006.