The view
from the Sacre Coeur
was worth the agony
of the push
that the three of you
had to give, with panting curses
of the chair’s inability to propel
itself uphill, however
the taxi back down
after lunch and seeing the Eiffel Tower’s
steely resolve, sure made
an excellent ride.
Ian D. Hall 2016
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It doesn’t seem five minutes since Tiffany Stevenson was wowing the crowds at this year’s Edinburgh Festival and yet in the month since she has been to America to discuss a film, reaffirmed her belief that Donald Trump is bad for women as well as others who may share the land of the free but somehow great for comedians and that somewhere along the line Giant Hogs are as dangerous a prospect in Louisiana as the possibility of Isis striking a direct hit in the swamps and that the great state relies heavily upon guns, lots of guns, weapons carried in full view and more than likely allowed in the disturbing scenes associated with a particular porn empire.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
When there is Nothing To Lose there is always the thought that there is everything to win, something monumental to gain, too secure the true self revealed in the fight that life throws at you in the hope that you will rise above the negative.
Nothing To Lose, everything to gain and Red Butler once more show that having been Freedom Bound, they have kept the cynics, the intolerable pessimists and the down at heel detractors at bay by producing an album of absolute quality and music that is sensitive, commanding and aims straight like an arrow for the subject, piercing the formidable enemy’s armour and causing wound after wound to be opened.
They were caught playing football
on the broken street
of Aleppo, one brief glimpse
of normality taken and destroyed,
imagine if it was here, where boys
in rags and girls in tattered
woollen stocking remains were seen
to smile as they played in the brown,
water filled crater where a mortar bomb
had exploded the night before
in the rain of fire; imagine
if that was on the streets of Bootle,
on the blown apart roads
leading to where a school bell once rang
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
All good fortune seems to stem from being in the right place and at the right time; everything could be argued as co-incidental and cruising the miracle mile in search of a side order of inspiration.
I
have no
natural inclination
towards
Art,
I love to stare and immerse
myself in the artist’s
mind and feel the flow
of the brush
on canvas;
however
I cannot draw,
keep the palate
still and create,
no The War Bride,
no Death of Nelson
or Mark Wilkinson classic
forth-coming
from these stubby, inadequate
fingers. I try though,
I attempt to paint
in the manner of the great surrealist,
I practice all the time, yet
somehow I cannot
Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating: * * * *
Cast: Bec Hill
It will be the last time that the Liverpool Comedy Festival will be housed in the Unity Theatre before it begins its major refurbishment at the beginning of next year, and leading us into the festival is acclaimed Australian comedian Bec Hill. After making the finals of the Raw act competition in her native country and wining the Barry Award for best show in Edinburgh 2014, this comedian has gathered quite a following with her quirky style of comedy.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It often only takes a gentle reminder, the sway of a musician’s performance to remember what is deep in your bones and in your soul, that the infectious delight they spread by performing music that is heritage, a long and distinguished inheritance that outweighs anything that comes from the banal and repetitively dull, is something that will stir the conscious and play havoc with the heart.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The feeling is either force fed into you or if you are fortunate then it is Airborne, it comes down from seemingly above, like the nectar of the gods, the music infecting you in the only way that Rock and Roll, the heaviness in the metal, should or can, with no fighting the inevitable, through the medium of the largest, most clearest speaker and with overflowing hope in your heart that a band can match the likes of AC/DC in their heyday or at least divert your attention from the faltering stutter that the genre persists in having in Britain and America; a group that can be seen visibly seen and audibly Breakin’ Outta Hell.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Humanity has never been so well connected, so informed of what is going on in the world or the possibilities within it and yet day by day, each passing moment on the clock, someone finds anger, resentment, the reason to start pulling away from society and withdrawing into a world which is safer, clean and with less chance of finding their thoughts tipping over the edge. It is arguably an issue that stems from having to deal with the perceived lacking of understanding, the social anxiety, the modern day disease that comes with no cure, the malaise of knowing that world is as heavily and royally screwed as you imagine.