Thomas Lang, The German Alphabet. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There will always be those musicians who seem to pack in so many different styles and varieties into their albums that it can feel as if they have found the recipe for the perfect selection box. The sound of the horn encased within one layer and wrapping, the texture of a night spent with friends in a New Orleans Jazz Bar nestled firmly in to the box and the nugget of the right blend and satisfied crunch of flourish and thriving fanfare that makes any selection box worth having any time of year.

Thomas Lang, The German Alphabet. Album Review. full post

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

Damien Dempsey, No Force On Earth. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We live in a time when commemorations and anniversaries are common place, we seem, quite rightly to remember and revere the past now with more affection and memory than we would have done even a generation ago; yet somehow we don’t seem to really grasp the enormity of those times as much as our collective tears and silent bows of heads suggest we should. We cannot understand just by the odd allusion to the fallen just what some gave in their fight for freedom; No Force On Earth can do that unless we ourselves lived through it or we have the power of a master story teller to be able to focus our attention on what happened and how the people lived.

Damien Dempsey, No Force On Earth. Album Review. full post

(460 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Korean Peninsula War And The Furthering Of Atomic Nightmares.

Nothing has changed,

I still feel the gravity, the grave

of the three

in the morning shadow

that I have had since childhood

that all I know and love, those

to whom I have sheltered,

will all be vaporised in a minute

as bombs rain down

over our heads.

I once imagined

it would be amongst those envied

for why would you consider

living

like that, in amongst the rubble and burning

fires, the smell of death and putrid

dissolving water, now as I feel

Korean Peninsula War And The Furthering Of Atomic Nightmares. full post

(121 words, estimated 29 secs reading time)

Billy Joel, Gig Review. Wembley Stadium, London.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The lights may have been seen to go out over Broadway, but as the sound of the piano keys crashed down and the echo of thousands of racing hearts fulfilled an ambition in the home of national sports greatest heroes, the illumination from a thousand cameras, of what seemed like a million cell phones capturing the event, Wembley was lit up in spectacular style. This was the honouring of a man for whom so many had perhaps waited a lifetime to watch perform and who now bathed in the glare of flashbulbs and love.

Billy Joel, Gig Review. Wembley Stadium, London. full post

(550 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Alarm Pull.

Alarm pull

for help

is on wrong side

of the bathroom

for someone naturally left handed

or someone who cannot open his eyes

in the morning,

reaching out half drowned

in the land of nod, the sound

of impending storm troopers,

Nazi guards in blue Travel-

lodge shirts and raised eyebrows

break down the door

with a gentle shove

and raise their eye brows

in disbelief

when they interrogate you

till you throw yourself upon their mercy…

I didn’t mean to pull the alarm,

Alarm Pull. full post

(99 words, estimated 24 secs reading time)

We’re On Our Way To Wembley.

Let the chant begin at Watford Junction

that we’re off to Wembley,

there is no commemorative

souvenir pullout in the daily

paper, no rosette hanging

down from pin hole spurred

lapel and no colours,

no Liverpool red, no triumphant

blue under the shadow

of the great Bobby Moore,

England’s last great gentleman,

let the chant begin, let the scarves be waved

we’re off to Wembley,

from Watford Junction

the Twin Towers are so very close

now but the cheer you hear

at the final whistle, the moment

We’re On Our Way To Wembley. full post

(164 words, estimated 39 secs reading time)

Todd Rundgren, An Evening With Todd Rundgren, Live At The Ridgefield. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Time passes, it is as inevitable as the sun rising above the clouds and the moon deferring its own mighty grandeur in the presence of lightning striking the Earth; Time moves ever onward and takes us on its journey, regardless of whether we are equipped for the voyage or not.

Todd Rundgren, An Evening With Todd Rundgren, Live At The Ridgefield. Album Review. full post

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

Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Theatre Review. Haymarket Theatre, London.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Pixie Lott, Matt Barber, Victor McGuire, Katy Allen, Robert Calvert, Naomi Cranston, Charlie De Melo, Tim Francis, Andrew Joshi, Melanie La Barrie, Sevan Stephan, Andy Watkins.

Forget the comfortable situation employed by Hollywood, the sight of Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard turning the pages of a novel upside down so it almost becomes unrecognisable to the readers who made it much loved in the first place. When it comes to bringing a story to life, most of the time the truest form of sincere adaption comes from the theatre and the actors slogging their guts out, feeling the character’s skin and with the chance that that well loved story might turn out to be received as fickle and as erratic as electricity captured in a vacuum.

Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Theatre Review. Haymarket Theatre, London. full post

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

The Divine Comedy, Foreverland. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The charm of The Divine Comedy is never in doubt, it can be slightly misplaced, falling into the slight ditch of baroque uncertainty and even be completely have the point missed by those who dare not take the flight of fancy further than believing every song should be reminiscent of the wit of Oscar Wilde or Noel Coward. It can have all of those insults hurled against it but Neil Hannon will still come out on top and be the one to raise the pop standard higher in Foreverland.

The Divine Comedy, Foreverland. Album Review. full post

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

Calais Wall.

They built one in China,

that now to history seems a wonder

of ancient technology, of planning

and people look at it and marvel

of how, wrongly, it can be seen from space

where there is no barrier

and there is no nation line.

A man paved with delusion

and whose phallic tower

rises

almost impotent

when he declares that a wall

be built to keep Mexicans

but not those north

of the winter border out;

that wall is insane.

Then comes along the self important nation,

Calais Wall. full post

(160 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)