Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It can be a double edged sword, in some respects Christmas is a time when the world seems to breathe, it collects its thoughts in the wild winter and the hope of in-bound days, the warm fire jostling for perspective and memories of days where the dripping of slowly thawing snow onto the hall way floor competes with the sense of isolation, enforced or otherwise and the crush that such a time can have on the soul.
The choking smog, irritates
and catches fire at the back of throat
from five miles away and the blank
faces of acceptance is a far cry
from Tiananmen Square.
A world away, the air is only soiled
by the corruption that settles
on the skin, that digs deep
into the pores
and poisons the soul.
A world away still further,
the recoil of a shot in the
broad light of day, echoes around the
empty chamber
and dies unhappily, its purpose spent.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Harrison Ford, Daisy Riley, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Mark Hamill, Billie Lourd, Peter Mayhew, Simon Pegg, Kenny Baker, Lupita Nyong’o, Andy Serkis, Anthony Daniels, Max Von Sydow, Greg Grunberg, Ken Leung.
The door will close on the world,
the only vision
of what lays beyond the great beyond
will come through television’s
voyeuristic intent
and from the voices I hear
as they pass the gate,
unhindered and alone;
almost spectral, apparitions
in the dust of hopeful white
that will add fuel to the point
of staying put
safe in my own mind and memory.
I will hear no knocks,
no rapping with great urgency
upon the wooden door
but I will be startled from slumber,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Calum Best, Alison Crawford, Beryl Marsden, Michael Chapman, Tom Burroughs, Lesley Butler, Chris Barton, Lewis Pryor.
The Ugly Sisters are running amuck at Hard-Up Hall, the evil step-mother has all under her spell and Buttons is infatuated with the most beautiful girl in all the land, things are never simple in Panto land and for Cinderella, the day is one where her life gets turned upside down and the story of her rags to riches existence becomes a tale of woe banished by charm.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Sally Lindsay, Leanne Campbell, Eric Potts, Liam Mellor, Kurtis Stacey, Warren Donnelly, Pete Price, Hayley Goold
“Big” is the first thing that springs to mind when taking a seat at The Liverpool Empire for this year’s Pantomime, Dick Whittington, and that’s exactly what the show delivers: Big laughs, Big fun, Big songs, Big costumes and – above all – some Big performances that will have everybody cheering from start to finish.
To me, he was the original Man in Black,
not knowing
of Johnny Cash’s persona at that time,
and it still being a couple of years away before
I became truly aware of The Stranglers,
He was the Man in Black
who looked like a machine,
sleek, disturbing, powerful,
like a starving Panther
on the prowl,
circling the village,
and waiting, fur bristling in the wind,
patiently for the right moment to
attack.
Bryan and I, cousins of six and seven,
sat spellbound and watched him
Kate Rusby at The Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. December 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It could be said that the first true sign that Christmas has appeared over the streets of Liverpool is when Barnsley’s Kate Rusby steps out on stage at the Philharmonic Hall and proceeds to bequeath presents out in the shape of the finest local folk music and musical renditions of popular festive songs.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is always a little room for Glossom in your life, should there not be then it is the right time to delete from your memory the mouthfuls of sprouts you have had to endure, to let go of that conversation of where you were going to spend New Year’s Eve and it turned out you had to dance with an aged aunt who couldn’t keep her hands to herself and the almost impossible task of acting surprised when your nearest and dearest bought you the one present you had dropped more hints about than a teenager trying his luck with the cider bottle. For in all things to do with the festive season, sprouts, groping aunts and drunk young teenagers matter not a single jot, however the return of Glossom with their new two track E.P. deserves full attention; there truly is no contest.
You are the rabbit in my head,
the one that demands that Time
is always against me, that Time
is the ogre, the Fagin of the day, pinching
without being noticed and offering
the stolen seconds to
the procrastinator,
the bully boy side step
of borrowed minutes
in ragged top hat and
the pitbull of days,
snarling as it returns the wallet
full of I.O.U.s which
cannot be redeemed.
You are The Cheshire Cat
smiling at me as the Rabbit
taps his fob watch