The Star, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Eithne Browne in The Star. Photograph by Robert Day.

Eithne Browne in The Star. Photograph by Robert Day.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Eithne Browne, Michelle Butterly, Helen Carter, Kevin Harvey, Danny O’Brien, Jack Rigby, Michael Starke.

Musicians: James Breckon, Elliot Chapman, Danny Miller.

Looking up into the Heavens, one can see the gallery of happy faces, the stars are there to perform, and they find no reason to ever stop beaming their light on the world below. For audiences making their way to the Playhouse this festive season, The Star is shining brightly and it is one that captures all that is good about modern theatre and the remarkable memory it invokes of hearing about the good old days of the music hall experience.

The Star, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(418 words, 1 image, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Rillington Place, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tim Roth, Samantha Morton, Nico Mirallegro, Jodie Comer, John-Paul Hurley, Christopher Hatherall, Tim Bentinck, Sonya Cassidy, Bryan Parry, Eiry Thomas, Chris Reilly, Pearl Appleby, Erin Armstrong, Kevin Mathurin, Sarah Quintrell.

There are some names that fall through history’s tentacles like poisoned water, the seeds of their crimes going undetected at the time and yet their title living on for all eternity, gruesome and disturbing, shocking and vile, there is no other way to describe the horror that was committed by John Reginald Christie at Rillington Place.

Rillington Place, Television Review. full post

(461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Doctor Who Conundrum.

Starry-eyed

She pounced in my direction

and in a loud commanding,

masterful voice that betrayed in its heart

a sense of innocence and wanting

desperately to please

She proclaimed,

“Oh Ian,

you were right, I have just finished

watching the first episode of Doctor Who;

isn’t it just so fabulous?”

Cheered by this revelation

I asked her if she enjoyed William Hartnell’s performance.

Clearly confused, her face screwed up,

contorted and thoughtful in her puzzlement,

she replied after much deliberation,

“Was he one of the monsters?”

Doctor Who Conundrum. full post

(107 words, estimated 26 secs reading time)

Aladdin, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Natasha Hamilton, Sean Smith, Jordan Davies, Mark Byron, Michael Chapman, Lewis Pryor, Lesley Butler, Tom Burroughs.

The Christmas pantomime, one of the great cornerstones of life and nowhere in the world really captures the point or the reason of it as much as the British, it takes sheer guts to perform so many shows to an audience to whom many are arguably having their first taste of theatre, of the slapstick fun that is at times extraordinarily paced and presented and the fun that goes with it. It is the possibly the finest of traditions and Aladdin at the Epstein Theatre is no different and one that is all too enjoyable, no matter the age of the person in the seat.

Aladdin, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Alistair Anderson & Northlands, Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If we don’t sit down occasionally and see life through the medium of our senses and just keep going on to derive some ludicrous pleasure from over consuming then how do we ever hope to grow and listen, to think, to enjoy art for what it is, the prospect of hope in a world of diminishing responsibility, one that can thrill, make you ponder without ever having to aggressively become a stunted and single thought human being.

Alistair Anderson & Northlands, Album Review. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Satsuma.

The Satsuma is starting to go green,

untouched it has gone sour, the sweetness

sucked dry and stale,

I really wanted to taste this Orange fruit

but unlike the plums it held no thought

of ripeness in my mind;

the Christmas stocking,

oversized woollen sock

held many a delight, the Corgi toy car,

a cracker bound in small explosive,

yet every year the Satsuma would poke

its way out of the top of the stocking

and go mouldy before my eyes, even on the coldest

Christmas Day.

Satsuma. full post

(94 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)

Graham Mackenzie, Crossing Borders. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

If travel broadens the mind then anyone who takes their instrument of choice beyond the horizon that they see in their first tentative steps of learning is to be congratulated, such is the temptation to just play and not allow the words to flow naturally into the performance, that so many people only ever see the result in the illusion and dreams but never do they take their musical passport to look officialdom in the eye and use the experience to be seen as Crossing Borders.

Graham Mackenzie, Crossing Borders. Album Review. full post

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

Like A Bomb.

Like a bomb,

encased in skin,

I just want to self-destruct,

pushing myself

to the limit of simmering pressure,

I want to explode

and be a second sun

on the horizon

at Dawn…

you disarm me

only with your smile.

Ian D. Hall 2016

Permanent link to this post (45 words, estimated 11 secs reading time)

The Day I Discovered Futility.

If it should end, let it end now,

stop dragging it out,

stop feeding the worm in the mind,

for today I discovered futility

and it is a word that I cannot abide.

 

Wasted years, never in search of riches

and to those I may have hurt, unknowingly

or their perception of what I said,

I apologised more than once if you deserved it,

but blow me down

if you think I am going to kneel

and take your crap forever, infinity was long enough.

 

The Day I Discovered Futility. full post

(142 words, estimated 34 secs reading time)

Simon Thacker And Justyna Jablonska, Karmana. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Simon Thacker it seems can not only make an enigma shine brighter than it could be imagined in the furthest reaches of an audience’s hopes and dreams but he can do it with such style that no matter what genre of music you find yourself most drawn too, he will have you believing in the art of classical Folk with the added bonus of Roma, Polish and the mysticism blend of the table as if it one of the finest undiscovered joys possible.

Simon Thacker And Justyna Jablonska, Karmana. Album Review. full post

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