Gregory Porter, Take Me To The Alley. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Experience is at the heart of professionalism; life at the very centre of a good story or lyric and understanding the very point of music; bring all those facets of a person’s ability together and what the result might look like is Gregory Porter. It certainly won’t sound like the one of the Jazz/Soul greats of the modern age for nobody can be as remarkably clear and beautifully astute as him and in his new album, Take Me To The Alley, all that refinement, class and specialist insight comes rushing out to greet the listener in all its abundant glory.

Gregory Porter, Take Me To The Alley. Album Review. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Captain America: Civil War, Film Review. Picturehouse, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, Martin Freeman, Marisa Tomei, John Kani, John Slattery, Hope Davis, Alfre Woodard, Gene Farber, Stan Lee.

The world hangs in a deadly balance, the world’s mightiest heroes are being reined in by their own kind and their friends and divisions and sides are being forged and broken; the world is used to such fun and games, countries routinely flip in their pursuit of self interest and government greed but to do this to those charged with protecting the planet, it all gets very murky indeed.

Captain America: Civil War, Film Review. Picturehouse, Liverpool. full post

(511 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Set List.

It means nothing,

a scrawl of a name upon a sheet

of type faced paper,

the songs upon it mean the world

but they could have come from

your own computer, your own stubbed-

out fingers creasing upon your ink dried

heart, then signed by the artist…

however…

pen written, the taste of ink on the fingers

of the flowering talent,

of the smile that comes with it for free,

two way mutual respect and admiration

and the surge of holding

onto the setlist, shaking as they dedicate it

Set List. full post

(194 words, estimated 47 secs reading time)

Going Viral, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Daniel Bye

The premise behind Daniel Bye’s latest show is a simple one; an aeroplane flies from India to England, everyone onboard is weeping. Everyone except you. There is a disease sweeping the world, it is incredibly infectious and it passes from person to person. Bye explores the issues of viruses and how they spread in his latest show Going Viral currently running at the Unity.

Going Viral, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Demolition, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper, Judah Lewis, C.J. Wilson, Polly Draper, Malachy Cleary, Debra Monk, Heather Lind, Wass Stevens, Blaire Brooks, Gregory Haney.

Grief is a peculiar beast; it affects people in different ways. Some will look at it as a time of reflection, some will plough themselves into their work till they become ill and others will find themselves finding a very different approach to dealing with the hurt, pain and absolute heartache of losing someone they love. The heart will grieve regardless and it is the moment of final deconstruction that most will come through the other side and find a reason to smile again.

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

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

Jane’s Got A Gun, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan McGregor, Noah Emmerich, Boyd Holbrook, Rodrigo Santoro, James Burnett, Sam Quinn, Maisie McMaster, Jenny Gabrielle, Alex Manette, Piper Sheets, Celia Kessler, Linda Martin.

It seems the old west is becoming more flavoursome once more, it certainly has had a lot of time to find its niche market again and thankfully move away from the tired and almost disgraceful, fetish like voyeurism of the 1950s and 60s in which generations of cinema goers were treated to the version of events that depicted the wars and slaughter of native Americans and their European invaders. The old west now seems to venture into more realistic territory and yet occasionally it can blow its own trumpet too hard and offer a film that just doesn’t fit in either camp; it is neither truly awful nor astonishingly good but nevertheless it still is a piece of artistic interpretation worth exploring.

Jane’s Got A Gun, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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

The Bed You Made.

They said I made my bed

so I have to lay in it,

yet I sleep on a sofa

perhaps for a while

and during the day if

I am lucky, if I have had the temerity

to take tablets and pain killer courage

by the bundle; I rarely get to see a bed

and when I do it seems it was made up

by maid service or the dumb waiter

who never actually let me finish

my fucking sentences

because it either suited them

The Bed You Made. full post

(269 words, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

Gary Edward Jones, Gig Review. Constellations, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Even the spectre of near biblical sounding April rainfall and destructive wind whistling round the building couldn’t deter the sound that Gary Edward Jones and his band were making in Constellations. If anything, as the heaviest of raindrops fell upon the roof of the building and the wind roared down the Mersey River and into the heart of the Baltic Triangle, it was almost if the elements, the drive of nature was applauding and cheering on The Cabinet Maker. Each droplet heard in time as if the polite ovation of a classical music audience had somehow been thrown into the mix of the night; it was one that was most welcome and assuring.

Gary Edward Jones, Gig Review. Constellations, Liverpool. full post

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

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. Constellations, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10

It seems to be that the phrase for Liverpool’s Eleanor Nelly is “always continues to impress and astound”; for when you see this young musician perform you forget about many things, Time gets swallowed up, Time finds a way to be its own destructing agent without decaying the fragile and sensitive beauty that is bonded between audience and performer. It is almost as if Time understands the special nature that comes with Ms. Nelly and wants to make sure that those that see her perform now in Liverpool enjoy, take pleasure in and bask in the enormity to come, for six months on from turning 16, Eleanor is surely earmarked to go to the stars.

Eleanor Nelly, Gig Review. Constellations, Liverpool. full post

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

Error 404, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Daniel Bye.

The nature of the Philosopher, the very act of being, is one that is largely ignored and yet remains one of the most telling lines of all William Shakespeare’s plays. To be or not to be, the very nature of existence and the art of acting upon will or allowing events to be dictated to you, to feel alive, to need, to ache, to live, to feel, these are fundamental questions in which truth of reality is achieved and highlighted.

Error 404, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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