The first day,
stuck in between appointments
and the risk of running out of steam,
I found you alone, blue jacket
protecting you against the September
driving pulse of crammed
up halls and lost momentum.
A lit cigarette punching above its weight,
enthusing will power into the lungs
and the air of nonchalant
grace tasting beautiful
as it hit the Liverpool air
outside the lecture hall; the final
trip of the day and felt like wheeling
away from it there and then.
Photograph reproduced with kind permission by Andrew Ab.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Shaun Holdom-Eyles, Amy Murphy, Jak Malone, Franki Burke, Jamie Barfield, Julie Evans, Andrew Jones, Chris Brockelsby, Alex Williams, Trev Fleming, Megan Key, Tom Lox, Steph Scrutton, Charlotte Wilson, Lily Mak, Martin Ellis, Eugene Tan, Jen Ramage, Zoe Thirsk,Elan Barfield, Steph Longmuir, Taylor Henwood, Jo Vickers.
Musicians: Jonas Tattersall, Andy Weaver, Jonny Knight, Ben Knowles, Callum Clarke.
The train conductor sighed
as he prepared
to tell his passengers to disembark
at the next and final stop.
“This train is for the Chelsea Flower Show.
This train is going to become a feature
of the show, upon arrival
please spread and sprinkle the seeds from the packets
all over the seats and use the watering can
liberally.”
“All change please, this train will
be germinating at Chelsea.”
Ian D. Hall 2016
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The heavy heart, the relentless and frenzied attack on the nervous system and the mad, wild pulse of the perfect and ecstasy ridden; everything you want from a Lacuna Coil album but might have been too afraid to desire.
Lacuna Coil’s new album Delirium once more sees the Italian based band rage with an unmistakable fury, with wrath and passion, so much so that the passion itself spills over and takes the songs of neglect, hate and broken things into a realm where obsession lays. It is passion that the listener cannot help but love and adore, that is nothing other the festering of a disease and one with no known cure but to ride the train and urge it to go faster until the engine is ready to explode in a bedlam of sweat and zeal.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Dylan Luster might not be a name that the public instantly recognises but the music he has created for his self titled E.P. is one that should catch on quicker than a salesman carrying a suitcase full of Mayonnaise finding a remote village that only has ever tried salt and pepper on its fish and chips.
The exposure to certain musical influences are keenly felt throughout the four songs that make up the Los Angeles musician’s E.P., there is no audible escape from the beauty that resides in the songs and more importantly in the vocals that the young man is able to deliver without impunity, without resignation of the soul and without ever straying from the line he has created.
I have been waiting so long
that it doesn’t bother me
if I have wait a little longer,
for in your car crash race
to have the last and final word,
the slurs, the put downs, the exaggerated
and the dog shit smears
rubbed in my face,
I remain silent, I just sit in peace and quiet
and count the days till karma
licks her lips and throws down the gauntlet,
lays all her cards upon the smoking green
table and spits frothy, boiling green flem
in your eye;
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
It is arguably impossible to calculate all the love in the world, you would be better off just trying to attempt collecting sand from a far off beach and turning into Cornish tin; some things are just physically impractical to do and hopeless to challenge.
I started hearing noises, sounds
and voices
in the darkness as I stole
the opportunity to sleep a while.
I would jolt awake, full upright
and that in itself would cause pain
down my spine, the creature of nightmares
inside my body
being summoned with mysterious
incantation by a voice that wasn’t there
and wasn’t my own.
The sounds I hear are overwhelming,
beautiful and damned, half of the battle
in which I face every day, I just seize
the moment every time to deny
One of the great albums of 2016 so far has come from the Lincolnshire based band The B-Leaguers. The ear-catching and phenomenal Death Of A Western Heart is not only a truly fine and well produced album but it reminds people that music is not just confined to the hearts of places such as Liverpool, Birmingham and London but is actually something so intrinsic to society that it is to be celebrated anywhere and at any time.
It was the duck earphones
that permanently endeared me to your soul,
bright yellow, water resistant and plastic
feathered…I saw you semi naked in a mirror, steam
driven as you changed for a party
at a fellow student’s house and I closed my eyes
quickly, snap shut, blocked my ears and
forgot to breathe until you tapped me
on the shoulders and enquired to what
I was hiding from, too old to admire
but young in heart to love you.
The duck earphones fitted like a glove,