My bartering skills are out of touch,
Twenty-First Century purchasing power
revealed in an empty wallet,
save an out of date Blood Donor Card
that I carry to remind of a Time
when I might have been useful.
The papers are full of brinksmanship
of the nuclear button kind
as ships from the other side
forget the day
that Nagasaki fell
in dust and radioactive bites
and I scour the antiques
in search of something I cannot own,
leave in the dust of my memory
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Clare Bowles, Helen Carter, Paul Duckworth, Alan Stocks, Keddy Sutton.
An outpouring of respect should be shown to an actor who puts their life in the hands of an audience to the extent that their own inner thoughts, their own passionate affair with the boards and with language become so consuming that they write a play off their own back and present it to a crowd, ever hungry, ever in need of a new production to hold close to their hearts, and feel the sweat and possible damnation coming off the rehearsal floor for.
Liverpool Sound and Vision rating * * * *
To look into the Vortex is perhaps to either suffer the ensuing madness of the Universe or to see the pattern of the daring, the beautiful and the artful. Either state of mind is to know that there are forces out there that can be manipulated, can be staged and controlled but they can never be as celebrated or admired in the same way, they are swirls of artistry and beauty and ones that capture the imagination to its fullest.
Tiny pricks,
the numb feeling
spreading from my early morning
face and down my left arm,
already embroiled in the memory
of a similar sensation
many years before,
and oh how that brought me down,
now I find that friends have rallied round
with good wishes, unlike before
where She told me
in no uncertain terms
that I was a waste of space,
the numbness echoing and dying,
so she maintained,
in her heart was enough
to wish me dead.
These tiny pricks
My parents
Lived
through the Cuban Missile Crisis
and breathed their desire
for a
Nuclear free world
down to me.
I lived,
as did my friends
and teenage crushes
through the spectre
of the
war of words
and sabre rattling
by America
and Russia
until a decent man called Gorbachev
took a step back from the brink..
I
Lived through 80s insanity.
I worry now
that my sons
who would not hurt a fly
are now facing
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Combine the very best of every attraction, art form and moment that you spend locked in your head daydreaming of songs that would have thrilled the music hall, an English Operetta or the down and dirty night in the basement of a Soho club taking in the wine, whisky and the soda, mix them with a sense of the triumphant and the heavily costumed and the hedonistic swagger and the result still won’t be a touch on the gargantuan new album by Birdeatsbaby, Tanta Furia.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
If there is anything in the world that is sadly lacking as we steam headlong and at times with no thought but selfish preservation running through our minds, it is that how much greater a species we could be if we actually listened, if we paid attention to what was being said without thinking what our reply would be. That if we were to Join Forces with those whose opinions veered completely in the opposite direction to us, we might perhaps actually achieve more, that by listening without raising our voices ever higher, we might just become more evolved than squabbling apes fighting over land, oil and water.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Authority without substance is overrated, it is meaningless, it means nothing and achieves only resentment and disaffection, authority without the will of the people is the daily open warfare and guaranteed manipulation of the masses, playing one of against the other; it is the best way, the only way to show How To Lose Friends And Influence No–One.
White pill,
sexy mo,
keep me going,
who needs the blue triangle
it only gets wasted on sex,
white pill,
crumbled down,
beats the thought of Ginsberg’s
heroin in the eyes,
don’t need to be high
to write down thoughts,
just lucid
enough to care that it is right.
White pill,
no other beast for me,
white pill,
my liver is fine
and counteracted by the fire
that still rages in my heart
and soul,
white pill,
chalk dust memories
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It might sound as if the idea was to make Darragh Cullen a superhero, to don the spandex and the secret identity, to fight the crime of poor manufactured music by television moguls who have no idea what an inspired and beautiful song really sounds like. It could easily be an homage to the world of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, of dark alleyways and illuminated sidewalks, the hero stands tall and the people of the world who pray for musical salvation, The New 52’s Let Me Sleep sees justice done.