Maddie Stenberg, Gig Review. Underground Acoustic, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Like many young women before her in the Liverpool area, Maddie Stenberg has dreams, it shines in her eyes and shivers with anticipation in her voice as she prepares to hit the stage, the front of the room. It is an anticipation which is sincere and raw, one that cannot and should be contained. Like many young women, the confidence oozes out of her, not in way that would be noticeable at first, not at least till you hear her sing and then the teenage cool comes rushing out and the audience, timid at first, soon understands what beats in her heart.

Maddie Stenberg, Gig Review. Underground Acoustic, Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

The Musician’s Octopus.

The solid, spread out ink

of the wired octopus on the polished

wooden floor, scuffed in places

where four by four

tables, holding sauces

and drinks during the day,

allows the musician

to reach the audience and keep

them spellbound.

 

The octopus never loses shape nor sleep,

wide awake, alert and fussy over the music

it hears silently, the only clue to the beat

being played is the pulse and the energy

that courses through its thin frame

and two jacked hearts, hyperactive

The Musician’s Octopus. full post

(191 words, estimated 46 secs reading time)

Kathy Stewart, Almost Home. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

In the modern era, finding yourself on the outskirts of the place where you perhaps grew up, the images flashing before you of all you said and done, the friendships made and possibly that withered away, skeletal, unfed, but now with the return just over the hill, full of flesh and possibility again, all these in the modern age don’t seem to have as much pathos attached to them as they once did. Being happy to be Almost Home is somehow reserved for those that never went away.

Kathy Stewart, Almost Home. Album Review. full post

(367 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

Radio-Active.

You could never replace the crackle

that came armed with a moment

of silence in the dead of night

or the giant Everyready PP9 battery

that would weigh your father’s pocket

down on one side and made him

appear as if he was stooping over

at the tender age of thirty-five

and which would feel like you

were cradling gold up the stairs

to put in the radio,

your companion at night

when darkness fell

but sleep was but a tiresome illusion.

 

Radio-Active. full post

(384 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Ancient Babies, The Man From 1943. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We all either want to stick it to the man, the faceless puller of strings, or we wish to laud him, revere the person we wish we could be, normally a much loved father or grandfather, or the one we choose to call dad. Whichever one it is, there will always be the man that sits in our lives.

Ben Morrs, part of the intriguing and alluring Onward Chariots, latest project Ancient Babies sees the much admired musician offer his own perspective on the subject with the compelling and insightful concept E.P. The Man From 1943.

Ancient Babies, The Man From 1943. E.P. Review. full post

(388 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Loathe, Prepare Consume Proceed. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Anonymity does not guarantee secrecy; to be secret you have to hide everything about yourself, your values, your opinions, your life, your inner most and perhaps haunting thoughts. In art, any type of art, it is surely impossible, for the lyrics seep through, the aggression, the hostility, the beauty, the heartache of the words and the aural onslaught that accompanies it; anonymity only brings intrigue and questions.

Loathe, Prepare Consume Proceed. Album Review. full post

(389 words, estimated 1:33 mins reading time)

Track By Track.

If only I had kept all my tickets

from every train journey I had ever taken,

I have no doubt they would stretch

from here

to there

and back once more

and would only be exceeded

by the amount of music

I have filled my brain

with, track by track, song by song,

over countless miles

to Plymouth and my great grandfather’s

home by the cliffs in Saltash,

to Newcastle to watch a gig or ten

the hour it took to get to Birmingham

Track By Track. full post

(188 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

Heart, Beautiful Broken. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Even after 40 years at the very top, the small dip in appreciation as a new century dawned and countless hits that have kept the Wilson sisters very much in the public eye, there is no doubting the majesty that comes with a brand new Heart album, the possessive feel that the fingers and the mind takes hold of as they do their best not to crumble or fall into the pit of comparison and judgement to the three distinct areas of Heart’s discography.

Heart, Beautiful Broken. Album Review. full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

The Drifting Classroom, Oubliette. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Life at times can feel like the worst of imprisonments, the sense that the way out of the situation in which you find yourself is only hindered by the imaginary rope you tie yourself to the chain with or the open doorway that is just a foot out of reach; life ties us down and only art, love and memory can free us from its tyrannical grip.

The Drifting Classroom, Oubliette. Album Review. full post

(422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Ghostbusters (2016). Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Chris Hemsworth, Andy Garcia, Neil Casey, Ed Begley Jr, Charles Dance, Zach Woods, John Milhiser, Ben Harris, Karan Soni, Bess Rous, Steve Higgins, , Dave Allen, Kate Dippold, Nate Corddry, Daniel Ramis, Michael McDonald, Pat Kiernan, Adam Ray, Davey Jones, Jaime Pacheco, Ryan Levine, Dan Teicher, Ozzy Osbourne, Theodore Shapiro, Eugene Cordero, Michael Kenneth Williams, Matt Walsh, Annie Potts, Cecily Strong, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver.

Ghostbusters (2016). Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(471 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)