Matt Breen is telephoning from Australia, for some that might not be the biggest thing in the world, in the days of mass communication, of easier ways to keep in touch, making a call from one side of the world to other is not considered to be a huge event. Yet strip away the thought of ease in the modern age, take away the simple act of dialling a number and what you are left with is deep symbolism, a connection between two people that isn’t hindered by the sterility of a text message or the flatness of an E-mail, it is the sheer effort that goes into co-ordinating an encounter that meets with both time and expectation.
Liverpool Sound And Vision: An Interview With Derek King.
The weather can surprise you in Liverpool, it can be freezing in some parts of the country, it can be downright torrential and heartbreaking in others and yet as a city that straddles arguably one of the two famous and iconic rivers in the country, the sheer mildness at times of the climate is enough to make you believe that perhaps that someone does truly watch over the city. Looking up above the line that inhabits the view from one of the coffee shops in the city centre, the image of a overgrown red and white costumed seasonal house breaker is caught scaling the outside of the Radio City Tower, one foot perilously close to being put through the roof of the Playhouse Theatre, the other grasping to get a firm grip and perhaps survey with greater clarity all those who have been good and naughty during the year.
Thom Morecroft, Hand Me Down. E.P. Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Although the E.P. title may allude to it, there is nothing Hand Me Down about the music writing and lyrical insightfulness of Thom Morecroft, a man who made Liverpool his home town, who has adopted it like a flag of honour but who also maintains the individual stride of pride in being a man inspired by his first surroundings of his native town. It is in this mix, potent, compelling and in many cases intoxicating, that makes his music a slice of enduring combination of Liverpool enthusiastic outpouring and Midland’s stoicism.
The Furrow’s Collective, Blow Out The Moon. E.P. Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The Sun may bring life, it may make the dark simply look like a tool of repression but in the end it holds less mystery to the naked eye, less intrigue what lays beyond than the creature of the night, Earth’s shadow, the Moon.
The Moon arguably inspires more poetry, more love in the heart of the songwriter, George Harrison may have captured the zeitgeist with Here Comes The Sun but the Moon influences the darker and spiritual side of Humanity’s relationship with what stretches out into the void. To remove that, to snuff out the spectral, to Blow Out The Moon, is commit an act of poetic treason.
The Calender.
The calendar,
once full of marks, ideas and written
in stone defined dates, only to be broken
by the day to day,
now lies empty and blank,
like the eyes on an old man
whose skin has turned mottled grey
and the loss he feels
forgotten and alone,
frightened for the things he can
no longer see.
The calendar’s activities
stop abruptly, no slowing
down of a heart at play,
they just cease, they terminate
and offer no hope of a scratch mark
Johny Corrigan, Down The Line. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It is not enough to just listen to a song or an album and exclaim that it is a great tune before going onto the next one like a rampaging and overweight bee flying across a field of enticing and wanton flowers, its mind constantly changing as each delicate bloom offers a different aroma, a different smell in which for the bee to get giddy about. It is not enough to listen to music as a background noise when placing the Sunday roast out for people to devour, music should always have a degree of empathy attached to it; both on the receiving and the offering of each and every track somewhere Down The Line.
We’re Doomed! The Dad’s Army Story. Television Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Paul Ritter, Richard Dormer, Stuart McQuarrie, Sarah Alexander, Sally Philips, Charlotte McDougall, Harry Peacock, Keith Allen, Amy Hughes, John Sessions, Amy O’ Dwyer, Ralph Riach, Michael Cochrane, Mark Heap, Julian Sands, Kevin Bishop, Kieran Hodgson, Shane Ritchie, Roy Hudd.
The Time Of Year.
I may dislike the time of year,
yet I find some solace in wishing you the best
and with a very sincere smile
as I tap out the words,
as I exploit
my soul
in going against the grain,
for the ending is just too much,
i’d rather kiss you for the first time
a thousand times
than ever say goodbye.
I love the message that comes back
in the heat of a darkness hour
which says thank you
for remembering me,
Gloomy Hellium Bath, Sistema Solera. Album Review.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
It could be deemed as understandable to those who dip in and out music as if it’s a spring filled lake, the necessity to relax into the mode on offer but always finding the temptation to run off and do something else, to give into the butterfly life cycle is perhaps a curse of modern day life. It makes it all too easy to dismiss something upon first listen, initial experience or starting sentence. If it doesn’t please you in the first couple of sentences then surely it can’t be any good.
A Ring Of Truth.
There was a reassuring ring of Time having been unspoilt, having not moved in the decade since I last dialled the number that was scrawled out on a rough piece of paper, torn at the edges, almost in the shape of a child’s jagged, over physical idea of what shape an island lost in some storm tossed sea should be like. Hurriedly torn from a freshly bought notebook, the lack of thought in the action that would ultimately lead to the early demise of the re-pulped paper, by my mother as she passed me as we exchanged a Christmas Card on the train, the ragged island now sat comfortably on my desk before me, pride of place for a phone call I never truly wanted to make.