Bryan Adams, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2016).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Bryan Adams, perhaps more than ever, knows how to take an audience on a ride of musical exuberance and heart beating songs; always entertaining live, Bryan Adams has become one of Rock’s elder statesmen and he has done so without losing the gift of youthful expression and the energy of a man possessed of charm, confidence and undoubted skill. To lose such attributes would be to diminish the truth behind the musician, to lose them would be depriving one of the great entertainers of his time.

Bryan Adams, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2016). full post

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

Green Room, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Macon Blair, Joe Cole, Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, David W. Thompson, Mark Webber, Eric Edelstein, Brent Werzner, Lj Klink, Taylor Tunes.

America is built on many great cornerstones of achievement and sacrifice, on the blood of many in its home land, on its own soil, such great deeds have been fought and many acts of huge regret encountered; it is also a place where in the shadows, in dark corners and out of the way of prying eyes, certain ways of life, particular individuals wait and prosper by spreading their ideology to the forgotten and disaffected.

Green Room, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

Doctor Who: The Peterloo Massacre. Audio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Jayne Standing, Robbie Stevens, Gerard Kearns, Philip Labey, Wayne Forester, Liz Morgan.

There are moments in history that are so sacred, so vital to have taken place that by not understanding them, not appreciating the full scale of the event and the fall-out from them, is to allow ignorance to breed and the wrong side of the argument to gain ground. There are such moments that bring change, eventual and ultimate change that to deny them should be considered a crime against humanity and the possibility of such events recurring.

Doctor Who: The Peterloo Massacre. Audio Drama Review. full post

(496 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Which One Of You.

These thoughts are constant

and there is no release

as there is permanently a state

of war going on being the two

emotional conditions

in my head; both trying so hard

to be on the side of good,

upright, pleasant and respectable,

both always losing.

 

No Hyde though appears,

I leave that for others

to search for, their tattle

giving them their own hope;

I am too weighed down

by wanting to be free

to care anymore.

 

Duality means taking two breaths

Which One Of You. full post

(160 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

Connie Lush, Renaissance. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Life should always be about revival, about being able to re-invent yourself every so often or being able to offer a new point of view to the values you hold dear to your heart; Renaissance is being able to learn from that, that the function and ability to want to understand more of the world and your place within it, is paramount to having lived a full and meaningful life.

Connie Lush, Renaissance. Album Review. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Meadowlark, Paraffin. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Relationships, no matter how long they have been going, are apt once in a while to find the spark of energy that first brought the two souls together, running low on fuel. It is nobody’s fault, it is the way of the world, people change, people find new ways to express themselves and rather than pouring crude oil on the waters what they perhaps need is a little enlightenment, a little Paraffin to light the way to the next chapter.

Meadowlark, Paraffin. Single Review. full post

(362 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

In Or Out.

By voting in or out

Britain could still be in the Eurovision

Song Contest, by voting out

or in, there might still

be an arsehole in Number 10, by voting

in or out, you could find

another arse waiting in the wings,

(or you might not), by

voting out, voting in

or even spoiling your paper,

one set of people will be happy,

(we didn’t vote for that)

and another will be spitting rags

(we didn’t vote for that either…did we?),

by voting in or out or even picking the fluff

In Or Out. full post

(268 words, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

Manic Street Preachers, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Time has only has its own void to fill when you realise that a decade has gone past, when the thought of a great concert in the city by one of the most proficient, unambiguous and staunchly determined groups of their era, becomes once more a biting and tenacious reality.

Manic Street Preachers, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Our Kind Of Traitor, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Damien Lewis, Naomi Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Mark Stanley, Alicia Von Rittberg, Mark Gattis, Jeremy Northam, Saskia Reeves, Alec Utgoff, Pawel Szajda, Khalid Abdalla, Grigoriy Dobrygin, Velibor Topic, Dolya Gavanski, Radivoje Bukvic, Marek Oravec.

It is only right that John Le Carré’s work is still seen as being amongst the finest of post Second World War espionage and spy fiction, from the remake of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to the hit television series Night Manager, John Le Carré’ is revered and respected, yet somewhere along the line that blurs one ideology from another, an author’s work can be muddled when adapted by another for the big screen; it is a fate that awaits what should be a good interesting film, Our Kind Of Traitor.

Our Kind Of Traitor, Film Review. full post

(521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

500 Days Of Siege.

I built a moat,

hammered down a sign, hand-written

biting scrawl, the legend “Ere Be Monsters”

screams at passers by

and just in case they think

of asking for the draw bridge

to be lowered, to come

inside and visit the land of the self siege,

they first have to negotiate the mine field,

to cover their noses from the smell

of plague that I pump into the air

as a warning, to cross their souls

and brace themselves for the sight

of scythes being sharpened

500 Days Of Siege. full post

(182 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)