Dave O’ Grady, Gig Review. Music Room, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Dave O' Grady at the Muisc Room in Liverpool. November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Dave O’ Grady at the Music Room in Liverpool. November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The ambience, the environment of a tangible quiet serenity is only ever enhanced when a musician of deep meaning words adds his worth to the vibe on offer. Like a master painter of seascapes finding the one flaw in his work that would have gone unnoticed by all and sundry who marvelled infront of it, the addition of a single piece of spectral light peering ominously from behind a passing cloud, not only adds texture and meaning, it adds a vision perhaps unseen.

Dave O’ Grady, Gig Review. Music Room, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(392 words, 1 image, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Shine, Fire & Ice. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Christmas and the subsequent passing of the hour in which the twelve days of the festive season melds seamlessly with the dying of the twelve months of yet another forceful bout with Time, come but once a year. In the hands of the corporate, the period can descend into slush, mawkishness and frightful displays of money corrupting the ideal of what the period is meant to be about.

Shine, Fire & Ice. E.P. Review. full post

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

Black Mass, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Jesse Plemons, Rory Cochrane, David Harbour, Adam Scott, Corey Stoll, Julianne Nicholson, Juno Temple, W. Earl Brown, Bill Camp, Mark Mahoney, Brad Carter, Scott Anderson, Lonnie Farmer, Erica McDermott, Owen Burke, Lewis D. Wheeler.

There are films which have the audience hanging on the edge of their seats and usually they are for their sheer scope and vision they offer the cinematic screen. They do not normally have the truth of America’s dirty laundry being aired in public or the realisation that somewhere in the U.K. or any other country the underworld is not just in bed with law and order but the relationship is consensual and without the use of protection.

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

(509 words, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

The Never Ending Bucket List

The bucket list always grows,

for what else is the point of being alive?

From the insane to the rationale, the desire

to the humble and all via the avenue

of memory and atonement,

I wish to tick every single thing off my list.

I have kissed a thousand women

and loved a few thousand more,

I have scored a solitary league goal,

right foot volley, very lower league,

I keep the press cutting as a souvenir, August

1989 against the Salisbury Deaf,

I have no memento

The Never Ending Bucket List full post

(310 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

Caro Emerald, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2015).

Caro Emerald at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The scene was set, the lights taken down to the feeling of sensual overload and moody cool and the band, that all important addition to any night of Jazz played immediately with a stirring passion that broke down any misplaced resistance of those that had poured themselves into the comfort of the Philharmonic Hall after the on-going downpour of the day and yet there was no sign of the shocking Ms. Emerald. The sound was there but no glorious sight, until the spotlight was seen and in one of the boxes stood the resplendent figure of Ms. Emerald taking the art of performance out into the crowd, standing emotionally enthralled and naked in amongst the people who had come to see her and the opening song of The Other Woman took on a whole different approach.

Caro Emerald, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. (2015). full post

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

Andreya Triana, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Andreya Triana at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool. November 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are perhaps fewer things in life, especially within the artistic range, more daunting than opening up for a woman who it is agreed almost universally to be a star of unrivalled quality. Nobody would ever blame a support act for feeling the slight unhinging trepidation which passes as they walk across the stage with a couple of thousand eyes baring down before them, nobody would truly bat an eye lid if the sound of their heart was audibly so loud that it drowned out the polite applause that greeted the performer. Yet as Andreya Triana made her way past the boards that have held a million feet, there was arguably no sense of the nerves showing at all, only wonderfully composed respect for the audience’s time.

Andreya Triana, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(397 words, 1 image, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

The Dressmaker, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving, Sarah Snook, Judy Davies, Caroline Goodall, Kerry Fox, Rebecca Gibney, Gyton Grantley, Shane Bourne, Barry Otto, Sacha Horler, Julia Blake, Shane Jacobson, Hayley Magnus, Alison Whyte, Geneviève Lemon, Terry Norris, Amanda Woodhams, Olivia Sprague, Mark Leonard Winter, Rachael Lorenz, Darcey Wilson, Rory Potter, Tracy Harvey, Roy Barker, Gregory Quinn, Simon Maiden, Grace Rosebirch, Lucy Moir, Jordan Mifsud, Sage Barreda.

There is nothing like watching elegant revenge on the big screen to stir the soul into believing that those who were mistreated by society will ultimately walk away with their heads held high and in fashionable taste.

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

(426 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Steve Jobs, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslett, Seth Rogan, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, Perla Haney-Jardine, Sarah Snook, John Ortiz, Adam Shapiro, John Steen, Stan Roth, Mihran Slougian, Robert Anthony Peters, Noreen Lee, Gail Fenton.

There is no doubt that Steve Jobs was magnetic personality, that the brains behind some of the ideas of personal computing of the last 40 years have his own indelible stamp upon them and that whilst being deeply flawed, as all reasonable people are apt to be, Danny Boyle’s biopic of the man behind Apple somehow manages to leave the casual viewer feeling aloof and disconnected from the subject at hand.

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

(383 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Airbridge.

Little girl, skipping up the airbridge from the ‘plane

I wonder if you’re visiting or coming home again?

The look upon your face is total joy and zero pain

A sparkling ray of sunshine in the rain

Little girl, tripping light fantastic in your mind

Travelling the world, your world

To see what you can find

One great life adventure, looking forward, not behind

Barriers for you not yet defined

Little girl, ripping through the rulebook of the day

A burst of living colour, in a monument of grey

Airbridge. full post

(116 words, estimated 28 secs reading time)

She Said.

The steely eyed glaze of righteous wrath

passed over me and stopped,

biding its time, patiently building up

dark eye shadow glory

and then like a meteor

over slow ice fields and the mindful of their own

business trees of Tunguska …

she let loose with venom and destruction

telling me I had to live in the real world.

A resident of such a world I am

but if I choose for a while to revel

in a place where smiles are seen,

where the friendly knife doesn’t cut you

She Said. full post

(245 words, estimated 59 secs reading time)