One of the honours of packing up your bags for a while, forgetting the steamy hot sweat of the city where no one has anything on their mind with perhaps the exception of the oncoming football season or the complexities of the latest England cricket score, is arguably heading off to the other capital of culture in the U.K. and immersing yourself completely in the Edinburgh Fringe. It is at the Fringe where some of Liverpool’s much loved actors and performers find themselves and test out new material for the first time, where they experience every crush, every agonising line of perplexed worry on the face of the audience and the thrill of delight that sits in the deepest heart when the play, the song or the joke is appreciated fully and with respect.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Maddie Stenberg.
The concourse at Lime Street Station on a Friday afternoon always seems to be incredibly congested, the heaving sense of humanity on the move as they find their way to different pastures for the weekend in search of fun or the locked doors of their own palaces and castles, is at times a wonder to behold. Ant like but striding with purpose, the evening concert in the city bringing people in, the thought of a late summer’s drink at the local spurring them on to catch the stopper between Liverpool and that other bended finger of North West music appreciation, you cannot help but be entranced by this weekly dance.
Cera Impala, Tumbleweed. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
There are those who have issues with intimacy, it scares them and no amount of cajoling or warmth will ever change that. It is not a bad thing to be wary of such confidence and chance of relationship, but it can lead you away from a musical path in which the poise and lyrical attraction of the musician is all consuming, all powerful and understandably beautiful.
James Cagney’s Missing Serenade.
I inwardly sigh for a moment
with pleasure when I see
the local cinema advertises
with glory a classic of the
Silver Screen and the days
of my childhood, sometimes off
school due to sickness, when
the giants of the cinema
would appear in an afternoon special.
The sigh doesn’t last,
except that it becomes more of a groan
of diary recall, deep and more meaningful
than any excitement of bed driven or steak
satisfaction desire, when I realise
that for the first time I might have seen
Armada, Of An Ocean. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The vastness and emptiness of the great seas is such that it is possible to lose sight of both land and fellow travellers along the way, that the only company is that in which you choose at the outset and there is no way to replace any of them until dry land comes into view. No matter how big the Armada, it can be a lonely life unless you are resolute and firm in your command Of An Ocean.
In The Cracks.
There,
with the spider
and the gathering dust
in between the space
where the vacuum exists,
that’s where I should be,
no bother, not in the way,
an inconvenience
to no one
except the maid with drooping eyes
and the start of impetigo on her top
lip which she dull like covers
with purple lipstick and unshaved hairs;
that is where I should be,
there in hiding
in the cracks
not a nuisance
or distraction.
Ian D. Hall 2016
Leitmotif.
Ghosts of who we were
haunt the spaces
we once filled;
echoes of a voice
long since silent
or broken.
Shadows cast too long
by blinding light,
reflected
by mirrors and lamps.
New histories
repeated
yet, without mistakes,
interpreted
mistaken.
Remembered anew,
but unfolding
as we speak.
Like wallpaper – hung,
covering cracks
never seen –
no words can describe
what’s underneath
these motifs.
Ian Miller
War Dogs, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Miles Teller, Jonah Hill, Bradley Cooper, Ana de Armas, Kevin Pollack, David Packouz, Eddie Jemison, Julian Sergi, Edson Jean, Patrick St. Esprit, Jeremy Tardy, Ashley Spillers, J. B. Blanc, Gabriel Spahiu.
War has always been good for the economy, especially those that want to make a killing. It is no secret that the point of war is not to spread peace but to make money and for some bullets and dollars are all that make sense.
The Waves Of Llandudno.
The Great Orm’s shadow,
high above the promenade
of Llandudno, the presence
of a once-thought God and worshiped such,
sits down in his latter days and chews
on the past, ruminating slowly
as his careful words take shape.
He enquires, sharp eyes blazing
as heavenly as the Sun at the centre
of the day’s disjointed topic
conversation, whether he thanked
me for attending my aunt’s funeral
on a cold and stormy wet day
eighteen months prior.
I told him I needed no thanks,
Orfila, Never Slowin’ Down. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It is a big step up from debut to the sheer scale of the so called difficult second album, the strides that need to be taken to ensure that the music continues to flow, that the result is heard with open ended honesty and the hunger just at the right level so it does not seem as if the band is gnawing at a bone which is exposed and bare; all its trapping and furs removed. It is an album that needs to see progression yet still be rooted enough in the same beauty that transfixed the original fans; to speed up and to shout out with guts and determination that they are Never Slowin’ Down.