Ellyn & Robbie, Skywriting With Glitter. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

To the memory of all the great poets, the scribes with no forethought of fame or fortune, whose only reward it may have been was to get the words out of their heads, to let them finally depart their minds, to this end Ellyn Maybe and Robbie Fitzsimmons can only be seen as honouring, dedicating themselves to the cause of poetry and in their album Skywriting With Glitter, they truly take on the words with absolute sincerity of spirit and fashionable beauty.

Ellyn & Robbie, Skywriting With Glitter. Album Review. full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Jack Taylor, Blood Cross. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Iain Glen, Siobhán O’Kelly, Jack Monaghan, Elva Trill, Alan McKee, Ross McKinney, Shane Robinson, Lalor Roddy, Killian Scott, Sinead Watters.

To take and consider revenge is the point where lives become meaningless, that you may as well take the whole Human Race with you in a blaze of remorseless fury for the want of practising the harder emotion of forgiveness. To want revenge is natural, it is perhaps inherent in us all but to actually physically take a life for a sleight, for an accident which robbed you of someone you loved; the question being could you truly want to keep perpetuating the agony and pain just to satisfy blood lust.

Jack Taylor, Blood Cross. Television Review. full post

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

Bicester.

I never appreciated you

till it was too late

and now

Bicester

I do pine for you

on occasion, every other day

in which thoughts of spending my Monday morning

developing the two finger shuffle, Progressive

Rock gods in favour of Religious Education

in which I had no care, vinyl Heaven

for all eternity as King Crimson looked down

upon my young and eager tastes

and the sometimes berated Ian Dury album would find

away in panties, sex and drugs and rock n’ roll

Bicester. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Metallica, Hardwired to Self-Destruct. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Arguably Metallica will go down in history as the kings of American Metal, if not contenders for the band that Empires quake and fall for, yet for all the blazing guns, the screams of red hot pokers as they clash against the sabre, the sword and the caressed steel, there was undoubtedly a period in which some of the fan base felt lost in the group’s company. Following on from the Black Album and right through to the debacle that was St. Anger, there was a general feeling of unease in the air, it cut through the swathes of vinyl, through the past honours and threatened to disable the moorings of one of the finest music ships ever created.

Metallica, Hardwired to Self-Destruct. Album Review. full post

(452 words, 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

How To Hurt The Invisible.

Today I will wrap a horse hair blanket around me

and let it sting that patch of constant weeping eczema

whilst I find a way to tie myself in knots

and put my soul at risk;

it is never hard to find a way to hurt yourself,

it saves time letting others do it for you.

I will sit either in my leather chair, as cracked and damaged as I

or I will find a way to make the third stair

as uncomfortable as possible, make it creak

How To Hurt The Invisible. full post

(289 words, estimated 1:09 mins reading time)

Dr. Hook Starring Dennis Locorriere, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It is in the flourish of the performance, the smile upon an artist’s face when they can be seen, witnessed by all, to be having just a good a time as their audience, the equality of art is assured and in the end it doesn’t matter a jot who the performer is, what matters is that the love between crowd and musician is real, complete and without end.

Dr. Hook Starring Dennis Locorriere, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(510 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Anne Allen, The Romantic Flute. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Romance, to some it is about feeling wanted, desired, cherished, perhaps with the knowledge firmly and subtly denied that it will lead to a form of subjugation, of power being placed back and forth between the two parties involved; eventually always leading to the damned phrase, if you loved me you would…. Romance though should arguably be seen like love, not one that monetary can be placed upon, rather it should be the feeling of being equal, of feeling relaxed and safe enough in each other’s company that is the main flush of excitement in any relationship.

Anne Allen, The Romantic Flute. Album Review. full post

(400 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell, Katherine Waterston, Samantha Morton, Dan Fogler, John Voight, Alison Sodul, Ezra Miller, Ron Perlman, Faith Wood-Blagrove, Jenn Murray, Ronan Raftery, Corey Peterson, Peter Breitmayer, Josh Cowdery, Sam Redford, Zoë Kravitz, Johnny Depp.

It is impossible to ignore the magic, the film that will leave you spellbound and entranced, even without trying too hard it will leave you on the verge of feeling the slack jaw and the misty eyed, a memory of feeling the optimism with any story told when you were a child and seeing that tale run with the grace of imagination installed into it by the writing, the way it was told and the small details of the descriptions added into it by a cool parent.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

A Quick Buck.

Money is not in short supply,

it cannot be,

when we can find the cash, the dough,

the pennies and the large plastic five pound

notes, ones not covered in the greed of

addiction to white washed powder,

to do up Parliament, to give a makeover

to Buckingham Palace, to give MPs a raise,

the necessary leg up to get them out of poverty…

for the one offering truth, the many

folding their arms and sniffing at the delights of the trough;

whilst children go hungry, whilst children are taken into care,

A Quick Buck. full post

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

It Snowed Then.

It snowed then,

I used to love the first flakes,

they felt like innocence,

a smile on my young face

and I would rush to let my tongue

dance in and out

whilst trying to catch tips

of angels in hope in would let me become

a good person,

one who could throw a snowball

that would catch an older,

miserable person by surprise

as it crashed on their cold unsmiling head.

It snowed today,

now I have no desire to rush

anywhere, the possibility

It Snowed Then. full post

(105 words, estimated 25 secs reading time)