Wires Crossed.

I could hear the sound

of another stilled conversation

beginning despite our closeness

for three quarters

of our lengthy lives;

“You only call me when you are melancholic

these days”, she shuffled the words

off her tongue as if she was slowly

delivering a speech

long prepared, long practised,

yet short of meaning, for I refused

to retort with blind obedience,

“You only call me when you are drunk”.

It was my fault for going sober,

kicking the one thing that brought

our pain together and gave us collateral

Wires Crossed. full post

(162 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)

Shakespeare, His Wife & The Dog, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre Studio, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Sally Edwards, Philip Whitchurch.

The final moments of anyone’s life, the darkest night before the inevitable dawn, nobody knows what is said when it is discussed in private, when it is between two people who have been married for so long but age, infirmity of spirit and distance between the souls makes the journey one that is poignant and ultimately one filled with regret and doubt.

Shakespeare, His Wife & The Dog, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre Studio, Liverpool. full post

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

Buns!

She looked at me

with seduction in her eyes,

the rolling pin

clasped firmly in her hands

and the taste of yeast in the air,

hanging desperately in the clouds

of flour-ing current abandon,

“May I interest you in having a good feel

of my rock hard buns?”, she asked

with the faint whisper of suggestion

lavishly drawing themselves

across her ruby red painted lips.

As her eyes fell upon

the packet of crumpets

I held between my thumb

and forefinger,

I vowed,

Buns! full post

(97 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)

Ships On The River.

Still flows the river, on the ebbing tide

I’ve watched those ships come and go

since I was a child

Still flows the river. Each and every day

I’ve watched those ships on the river

Coasters and tankers, waved them on their way

The River flows out to the estuary

Red and green buoys keep the channel safe

Seagulls follow the leaving ships

For flotsam and jetsam in their propeller wake

At a rate of knots they pass the Mersey bar

Then it’s out on to the Irish Sea

Ships On The River. full post

(201 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)

What I Remember When I Look At Your Hands.

Lift your Cornish head,

let that Tamar heart, Saltash

spirit, a rememberance

of all that you have mastered

fill your mind, for all

you have spoken in volumes,

in tenderness and all you have taught,

remind you that no matter

what I could achieve,

it pales

into insignificance to

the love in your heart;

may you always be there to guide,

for without that light

I am lost.

 

Ian D. Hall 2016

Permanent link to this post (75 words, estimated 18 secs reading time)

King King, Live. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There is a huge difference between being ready for the studio and being born for the stage, one can thrill the senses, the other washes over them, taking them on a ride that stops the heart, makes it require the sweet recovery of a frontman versed in the knowledge that live music is not about treating the symptom but improving the soul to live and cheer the sound from the wooden stage.

King King, Live. Album Review. full post

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

A Morning With The Underground.

Bright morning sunshine,

the day betrays the evening

in which I know

you search for a small glimpse,

the testimony of 89

in amongst the crowd,

to know where your brother was

and I wish I could take that pain away

for you.

We had spent the morning

putting flowers on a grave,

windswept and council unloved,

an old man on a tattered bench

sits and watches as I say a few words

for the underground,

the flowers laid, we bow our heads

A Morning With The Underground. full post

(115 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Val Colvin And We Shall Overcome 2016.

It is a battle cry but not one that is steeped in any political agenda, it is an urge to remember that once upon a time we cared for all in society, for it used to be that a whole village was responsible for the upbringing of a single child, the care of one is the care of all. Yet somehow we have become beleaguered, convinced that it is the right thing to do to ignore all the bad aspects of society, to not care about the homeless, the sick, those we perceive to be living a life of feckless abandon; it is a society that is on a tightrope, precariously balancing between keeping head held high and toeing the line eagerly signposted by many politicians or falling into the void themselves.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Val Colvin And We Shall Overcome 2016. full post

(1883 words, estimated 7:32 mins reading time)

Shake It Up Baby, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Jackie Jones, Neil MacDonald, Hayley Hampson, Julian Feria.

The world has not been the same since four lads from Liverpool took over the mass hysteria and pop domination and showed that the post war spirit of change and seeming polite revolution was here to stay and not wrestled back by the forces of the damned pre war sentiment of knowing your place. The 60s was all about the revolution, the counter culture and the moving away from pre-destined supposition; it was time to Shake It Up Baby and start to take a chance in life.

Shake It Up Baby, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(426 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Drums Along The Mersey, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Mike Newstead, Daniel Murphy, Abigail McKenzie, James Markham, Matthew Bromwich.

There are many contenders for the much vaunted and valued position of the fifth Beatle, that often much publicised place in history that has fallen for example on the shoulders of Brian Epstein, George Martin, even possibly Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and perhaps with the wish of many early fans the late Stuart Sutcliffe; however there is one man who arguably stands above them all and it is only thanks to history, historians, to the faithful in Liverpool and Hamburg that the truly remarkable Pete Best is quite rightly remembered as being the Beatle who should have been.

Drums Along The Mersey, Theatre Review. Ticket To Write, Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(482 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)