Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Never try to stop a juggernaut, it won’t thank you and might not even care, yet for all the mechanics and weight behind it, it still has a human heart that is in control of it all, that makes sure the behemoth is doing all it can to deliver the message or the goods on board; it is the human factor that makes these ships of the roads such a sight to behold when they are in full flight.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Jimmy Smits, Alistair Petrie, Genevieve O’Reilly, Ben Daniels, Paul Kasey, Ian McElhinney, Fares Fares, Jonathan Aris, James Earl Jones, Valene Kane, Daniel Mays.
It was always inevitable, always going to happen at some point, perhaps in a galaxy not too far away but someone was always going to produce a prequel to the prequels and do it after all the sequels had been set near enough in Cordite. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the tale that all fans of the space saga has fully deserved, the one big hole that needed not just filling, but doing so with respect, with elegance and style and perhaps even with the odd nod to the Universe at large.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Fiona Dolman, Nick Hendrix, Anthony Calf, Hugh Dennis, Raj Awasti, Caroline Blakiston, David Burke, Christopher Colquhoun, Michael Haydon, Pippa Haywood, Matt Houghton, Seeta Indrani, William Melling, Sally Philips, Catherine Steadman, Edwin Thomas, Manjinder Virk, Jo Wheatley, Angus Wright.
The past is so much harder to leave behind when the ghosts won’t stay dead.
If you must wear the face of shocked indignation
be warned, it is not a look that suits you,
or indeed flatters the features that are surrounded
by the years of hard drinking
or perhaps moaning twisted forceful tears
you have wrenched out of those crow lined,
feather scattered eyes. When you believe in your ugly
mind that what you say at four thirty in the long
cold festive driven afternoon is anything but crass,
that your gutter waiting mouth, spit and drawl
running from the side of your lop sided lips
I am looking forward to tomorrow,
I might meet up with someone
who likes spending time with me, but then
the questions start rummaging in my head,
scattering thoughts and wild demons,
of just what do I do if I cannot apologise enough,
that they take exception to smiling
in my direction, if they cannot contain
the dread of being in my company;
or if I should say one thing wrong,
compared to the hundred topics
of bile and consumerism they dictate,
that they will sneer and kick me
I admire you;
in a sea of black,
plastic umbrellas,
yours
is the only face
not afraid
to let the tears
outrun
the rain.
Ian D. Hall 2016
The rains of Williamson Square
fall with precision, with orchestrated beauty
on the words of the poet
below,
whimsical in nature,
they dance round Liverpool’s heart,
the words of every seaman’s tale
and Hen night drunken serenade
as shoes are carried
like wedding vows
through the cold whale spouted water;
the water tangos with their toes
and for the children who explode with weather warmed
August days, the chance to ballet and disco
in between the rain drops is second only
to the waltz enjoyed
The midweek floodlit match
and Stevie Heighway on the wing,
the memory of Bill Shankly
and the time when Kenny was King…
the band I listened to called them Fearless
and as images of Hamburg days and leather jackets
filled the fluid nature of my very existence;
got to choose between the Stones and The Beatles,
my vote went north every time
and went stratospheric the first time
I heard Pepper take the band out for a spin.
They are the Fearless, they are the glue
that frightens the Westminster village
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
You only have to go by the sound of the crowd to understand what music means to the people. In the end it is not about mass popularity, the endless soul destroying fight with fame and supposed fortune, it is how your art makes others feel deep in their souls and if you can have a sold out Philharmonic Hall audience singing their hearts out, making the foundations and the walls shake slightly in anticipation and the low moan of pleasure in the ears as hearts spill open over 35 years worth of love and affection for arguably one of the architects of British Synth Pop, The Human League, then the crowd cannot be wrong.
It is an act of patriotism
it is decreed
to stand during your national anthem
before a film goes on
in your local cinema
as the National Anthem plays out.
I know people who used to stand
as the British National Anthem
played on the television
as close down for the night commenced,
they would be erect
as they thought of the Queen
last thing at night
and the Government backed signal
to turn off
and go to bed came;
A huge part of me is thankful
we don’t have that nonsense now…
Ian D. Hall 2016