Doctor Who: The Waters Of Amsterdam. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Tim Delap, Richard James, Elizabeth Morton, Robbie Stevens, Wayne Forester.

As the tenth incarnation of The Doctor once remarked with fear in his voice, “Water always wins”; when that water surrounds you, when that impeding sense of doom of being submerged, of being inundated by half truths and a partner that won’t let you go easily, then water doesn’t just win, it erodes to eventually destruction everything in its path.

Doctor Who: The Waters Of Amsterdam. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

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

The Stranglers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Newcastle.

Baz Warne of The Stranglers at the Newcastle o2 Academy, March 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Not everything in life is Black and White but it must be safe to say that for many who have grown up, grown alongside and grown older disgracefully with The Stranglers, you either love them or you haven’t had your electricity switched on for the past forty years; for how else can you explain not having a soul in which to celebrate one of Britain’s finest bands, the longevity and the love that comes out of the Punk Rock wash whenever the Stranglers come to town.

The Stranglers, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Newcastle. full post

(558 words, 1 image, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

The Alarm, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Newcastle.

The Alarm’s Mike Peters at the 02 Academy, Newcastle, 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

In troubled times, when the glow of the knife edge seems to radiating heat and venom beyond that which is tolerable in the world, Mike Peters words to The Alarm song Where Were You Hiding When The Storms Broke? seems to take on a meaning that makes the nerve endings in the spine shudder but with steely resolve not to be found wanting when the hard decision is put your way. It is in the courage of conviction to make the choice which will either see you popular or see you determined by history to be right.

The Alarm, Gig Review. o2 Academy, Newcastle. full post

(483 words, 1 image, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

A Prince In The Café.

If he was sixty then he didn’t show it

in his face or the handshake

that he offered me at the end

of the night,

the long arduous session

in which my curry sauce,

Newcastle fashion, served with Barbados

and Middlesborough grin

and Southport decay,

tasted oh so fine as the last vestige

of the night died in my horse driven

carriage, snorting wildly throat.

After a quarter of a century,

the odd excursion to the land

of History in the making,

still that beguiling man

A Prince In The Café. full post

(123 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)

The Roscoes, Skin/The Wall. Singles Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is always about timing, the ability to get the message across at the right moment in which maximum exposure and feeling can be felt. It is the feeling of responsibility to Time, of leaving your trusted and dedicated shoe print in the sands that will eventually swallow you whole, that must be adhered to if any point to what you believe passionately in is too survive.

The Roscoes, Skin/The Wall. Singles Review. full post

(439 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

MMOTHS, Luneworks. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

There are those who thrive in the matter of fact of the day, to them the night is the reason that sleep exists and the argument that the moon offers writers a solitary friend; the night perhaps only existing in which to drown out the noise that forms in the day. The night though offers its own sense of wonder, the isolation that exists is somehow pure, filtered of the mess of clamour that wrecks havoc on creativity and lets loose the dogs of anguished impatience. The day being reversed brings a special kind of music that can only be heard in the quietest instant.

MMOTHS, Luneworks. Album Review. full post

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

Queen Zee & The Sasstones, Medicine. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The sound of Punk is one that never went away, that never got booted in the region’s best left undisclosed or allowed to fade away as some might suggest, it just took itself more seriously and allowed its perfectly controlled anarchy to be found shining away without criticism and having the ideal ammunition to assassinate the sometimes weak and foolish pop industry. Punk remains a haven for the intelligent and the unspoiled, of course at times it manages to go up its own backside and beguile with phantom pleasure but for the majority, it remains an undisguised truth that many will enjoy and tease the ungrateful with energy and heart thumping vigour.

Queen Zee & The Sasstones, Medicine. Single Review. full post

(405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

Dickensian, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tuppence Middleton, Stephen Rae, Sophie Rundle, Alexandra Moen, Joseph Quinn, Tom Weston-Jones, Pauline Collins, Robert Wilfort, Omid Djalili, Peter Firth, Jennifer Hennessy, Caroline Quentin, Richard Ridings, Anton Lesser, Laurel Jordan, Adrian Rawlins, Mark Stanley, Christopher Fairbank, Ned Dennehy, John Heffernan, Ben Starr, Brenock O’Connor, Bethany Muir, Phoebe Dynevor, Ellie Haddington, Richard Cordery, Wilson Radjou-Pujalte, Sam Hoare, Antonia Bernath.

To understand the present, you have to know what happened before, you have to know the story of how a person got to the position in life they inhabit on the day you met them, after that their life makes sense, it has significance.

Dickensian, Television Review. full post

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

A Mountain To Climb.

I may not be able to climb a mountain,

if I could I would have given Chomolungma

my best shot, frost bitten toes and missing

nose perhaps worth the price

of seeing the world in peace,

I wouldn’t have minded sailing the Atlantic,

lonely solitude a gift that keeps giving,

the endless days and sleepless nights, no

different to what my life entails now,

just the dark of the Ocean

calling out, each wave hitting

the side of the boat like an S.O.S. message,

join us, join us and swim under the pressure;

A Mountain To Climb. full post

(250 words, estimated 1:00 mins reading time)

The Herbal Bed, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating: * * * *

Cast: Philip Correia, Patrick Driver, Jonathon Guy Lewis, Emma Lowndes, Michael Mears, Charlotte Wakefield, Matt Whitchurch, Heidi Morgan.

William Shakespeare will always be remembered for being Britain’s finest ever writer, however not many of us will know much about his life and family. In this revival of Peter Whelan’s The Herbal Bed, Royal & Derngate, Rose Theatre Kingston and English Touring Theatre have collaborated to bring this drama back to the stage.

The Herbal Bed, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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