The Royal, Theatre Review. Theatre Royal, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Lynn Francis, Lindzi Germain, Philip Hesteltine, Danny O’Brien, Angela Simms, Alan Stocks.

Some institutions are so engrained into the fabric of society that to be without them is to argue that society is going backwards. The N.H.S., arguably the greatest and proudest contribution to British life in the last 100 years, is always under threat, always on the verge of being lost by those who believe that the health of the nation should be one that is allowed to make profit over care, yet, for now, still offers the best a patient can get and that always boils down to the people inside the hospitals, the doctors, the cleaners, the morticians, the nurses…those that wander in with a clip board one day and decide to stay.

The Royal, Theatre Review. Theatre Royal, Liverpool. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

Joe Bonamassa: A Tribute To The British Blues Explosion, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

With sweat sliding from the walls of the world famous Cavern Club in Liverpool – holy home of The Beatles and one or two others – Joe Bonamassa stepped onto the stage at 8 pm, slung his guitar across his shoulders and thereby went on to rip the guts out of the place with two hours of the most sublime guitar work you are ever likely to witness.

Joe Bonamassa: A Tribute To The British Blues Explosion, Gig Review. The Cavern Club, Liverpool. full post

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

The Passing Of A Gentle Brazilian Lion.

A last breathe that was not heard

on the other side of the world,

the Brazilian lion roared

in jungles,

carefree and to the full,

but I never heard the final bellow

of the beast, the growl of goodness

that would have rumbled underneath,

for on the other side of the world,

past oceans deep and proud

as your soul, as monumental

as your spirit which lifted

and touched through thick waves

and understanding…

I grow silent, I hear the news of the Lion’s

The Passing Of A Gentle Brazilian Lion. full post

(125 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)

Pain And Pleasure.

Is the pain worth the smile

that I find is on my tainted

and exhausted lips at two

in the morning, numb

having spoken for an hour,

throat dry despite the sips of water

I had taken through the evening;

my biggest and longest performance

at the tender age of forty-five

and one that made me stop

for a brief moment

when I consider that for thirty years

I was a coward, that I would not

and could not put myself up

to put myself forward;

Pain And Pleasure. full post

(113 words, estimated 27 secs reading time)

Mick Rhodes & The Hard Eight, Paradise City. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Paradise is only as nice as what you allow it to be; if your demeanour is set to the point of black thunderous skies and the spark of lightning rampaging overhead as if millions of gas bottles have been struck by a solitary match, then the thought of paradise is pretty bleak. However Paradise is redemption, it only takes a change of mood, a change of thought and deed and suddenly what has been ailing you turns against the tide and can be a place where blue heavens and sunshine cast no shadows.

Mick Rhodes & The Hard Eight, Paradise City. Album Review. full post

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

Euan Drysdale, Songs From The Boarwood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The songs of personality, of courage to step beyond the edge of the microphone and let the glare of spotlights, of other people’s pride in your ability shine through, is the point of being alive. There is something perverse in the express desire to only want to put your voice, your own natural stamp on the Universe expressly with the thought of money being the final result. Art in whatever form, life in all its beauty should be heard for what it gives to other people and Euan Drysdale’s Songs From The Boarwood is a superb example of what art can bring to other people’s lives.

Euan Drysdale, Songs From The Boarwood. Album Review. full post

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

Doctor Who: And You Will Obey Me. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Peter Davison, Geoffrey Beevers, Sheena Bhattessa, Alex Foley, Peta Cornish, Russ Bain, Tessa Coates, Nick Ellsworth.

No matter the incarnation of the Doctor, he is arguably at his sublime best when facing the prospect of battling one of two men in the Universe. Whether it is the maniacal, fascist like Davros or the dangerously charming and incredibly psychotic Master, both men are the epitome of thorns in the side of the man who loves Humanity just a little too much.

Doctor Who: And You Will Obey Me. Audio Drama Review. full post

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

What Would I Take With Me?

What would I take with me

if you breathed your last tomorrow,

aside from memories, dashed and broken

now upon the storm, driven by despair,

what on Earth would I take

with me

as I searched in vain for you?

 

A wide open world with a single aim

to witness in the flesh

all that I could in the year

and a day I would allow myself

to exist in mourning, whilst blisters

tore at my back and festering wounds

bubbled and scorched at the edge

What Would I Take With Me? full post

(329 words, estimated 1:19 mins reading time)

Roadhouse, City Of Decay. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

When a city dies, when it crumbles into dust and powdered filth, it takes on the spectral and the ghost like white shade of a vampire being shown the first chinks of dawn; the vampire and the dead city, the kind of allusion to which only the last person alive can understand when all around them is the tattered remains of a faded and one beautiful glory.

Roadhouse, City Of Decay. Album Review. full post

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

Superman: Doomed, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When the hero becomes the destroyer, when the bringer of salvation turns into the prophet of doom and death, then nobody on the planet can save humanity, save for the prophet himself. It is in the nature of humanity that such direct and opposing forces should be found in the body of one being.

Superman: Doomed, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(454 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)