Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The return to home territory is always an occasion in which to celebrate is mandatory, it is a fixed point on a tour in which the special is perhaps rolled out with more vigour and aplomb, in which the music takes on a binding pact between artist and audience, in which the pubs and clubs that surround the arena are flowing with memories of where it all started and where it perhaps might find itself.
The long since decommissioned steam train,
is only hauled out for public displays
and the for the chance to show
an audience just what was once
freely given, the age of beauty wrapped
in a sheath
of experience
and dedication to service;
now all that is forgotten,
all the crowd see is a relic
from a bygone period,
a shiny vessel primed to fail at the first breath
of electro glory and whose
soul, whose better days
of glory
are left behind in a once mighty shed
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The clock ticks down with strength and purpose as the black clouds of unimpressive rain and chocked down November days hit the Birmingham Streets. The Bristol Road, once a serene setting for W.H. Auden as he meandered back home in which to place a timely piece of prosaic poetry, is now lined with the signs of two of the “Big Four” of American Thrash Metal adorned on T-shirts and the rightful acknowledgement that Birmingham is the true home of Metal.
Feel the sweat
drain off me, pulse,
back and forth,
the body slamming sideways
into the fear of the awkwardly
thrown punch,
stop, no breathe,
searing heat exploding
as fear takes hold,
walking slowly in a daze,
my thoughts unclear
as my head hurts
and the safety of home dying
in my arms
and unconsciously I mouth
for help.
The blackness came quickly.
The shaft of bursting light
from the draught excluder
strip light above my head
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Perhaps the comparison should be noted between Cara Dillon and the subject of one of her songs which ended up as both a hit for Disney but also the bane of her young daughter’s life. Not for the fairy-like appeal but in the delicate nature of her voice that has the consistency of refreshing spring water running playfully down the hills of her native Northern Ireland and the image of thousand Cabbage White Butterflies let loose on the wings of a delicate breeze.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The young Cornishman on stage at the Epstein Theatre defies the image many may have of the county as being in league of wanting separation from the U.K., an image wrongly held by those in London and in the grasping power halls of the Westminster Village as being aloof from the country, insular, narrow minded and the prefect representation of the wildness of the untamed south, a wildness they see unflatteringly in the North of the line that divides their own minds. It is an image that Joe Francis happily shatters as he muses and sings of a greater inclusive nature that all artists hope for.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The concept album may be one that sits with highly prized satisfaction in the realms of Progressive Rock and even in the hearts of some of its heavier cousins and the beautifully placed arrangements that Classical holds without alluding to the term, yet in the hands of the imaginative and the bold, it can be just as sublime, just as terrifyingly simple to achieve the desired effect. For the Mono Sideboards, The Pains of Being Frank Lamb is a concept that all can identify with and can empathise totally.
I gave thanks only the once,
over a meal hosted by my grandmother’s
cousin in a small town near Philadelphia
and the small party of four, a second cousin
twice removed
and his wife both took a hand of mine
and prayed.
I was silent, but acknowledged their words
and I thought of home
as we sat in the heat
of a crowded restaurant,
the steam of the passable gravy
warming the inside of my nose
as I prepared to smother the turkey.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5 out of 10
The Talos Principle is a first-person and third-person adventure puzzle game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. The Talos Principle has a great pedigree as the development team at Croteam have created and continued to positively build upon the Serious Sam series which began in 2001 with Serious Sam: The First Encounter. The Talos Principle is Croteam’s debut on PS4 and is their first game utilising their own brand new Serious Sam 4 graphics engine.
Boo Hewerdine at the Music Room, Liverpool, November 2016. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The music of Boo Hewerdine may draw you in, the elegance of easy virtue and taste adding spice to the occasion but it is also his dry humour, his self- depreciation and anecdotes of a profession well lived that catches the attention of his live sets.
To many in the Philharmonic Hall’s Music Room, Boo Hewerdine is a colossus of British music and as he went through the near countless songs at his and the gathered audience’s disposal, there was no arguing with that simple and honest fact of artistic life.