Heath Common, BEATSBOX E.P. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There are poets and there are musicians, then there are lyricists of the highest value who toil away to conjure up seemingly out of mid-air the truth behind the meaning and whose purpose it seems is not to make the song just memorable, to one that gets inside the heart but to whom you cannot imagine having lived without. Into that fray lives many a genius but there is only one Heath Common and there can only be one man capable of bringing such assertive tales to life as he does in his new release BEATSBOX E.P.

Heath Common, BEATSBOX E.P. E.P. Review. full post

(374 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

New Tricks: The Crazy Gang. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Anthony Calf, Geraldine Somerville, Meera Syal, Lorraine Ashbourne, Peter Bramhill, Zara White, Sarah-Jane Potts.

It is perhaps a shame that the biggest case that U.C.O.S. will never have will be finding out the assailant at B.B.C. who decided that New Tricks had run its course and left to linger a death on a Tuesday night with a knife in its back that was unbecoming of such a widely appreciated and at times un-missable television.

New Tricks: The Crazy Gang. Television Review. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

I Will Lay Flowers For The Girl In Room Thirteen.

I will lay flowers for the girl in room thirteen.

In my shame of playing armchair detective,

having trudged the streets

in which her story

was told, I, like countless others,

forgot there was a human being

and not a story, a puzzle to solve,

that sang such songs of haunting sorrow

in room thirteen.

 

The long since forgotten grave, unmarked

and without any ceremony

since the day she was blessed by the Earth

should hold testament to the despise we

should hold to the Victorian era

I Will Lay Flowers For The Girl In Room Thirteen. full post

(158 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

Dr. John Cooper Clarke, Performance Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are performance poets, there are whirlwinds of poetic infusion but rarely do the two ever meet, Allen Ginsberg aside, none really have the pulling power that the modern world and medium fully deserves with the exception of the very positive and wonderfully punk, the gracious Dr. John Cooper Clarke.

To open up a night of music offered by Squeeze with the whirlwind persona that resides in John Cooper Clarke, a selection of poems beaten out of thin air and which magically entranced and threatened to spill out and dominate, not just the night ahead, but the thoughts of the audience for a good few weeks, was one in which should be applauded with great nods of enthusiasm to see a poetry master at work.

Dr. John Cooper Clarke, Performance Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

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

Wynne Weston-Davies, The Real Mary Kelly. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It was once claimed that a piece of vital evidence would one day come forward that it would prove without doubt the identity of the man who brought the East End of London to its knees during the latter half of 1888 and the answer would not be shocking. It would not have the world reaching for all the hundreds of books written on the subject once more and be leafed through with the luxury of zealot like gratification on deciding who was right or wrong, but in fact would leave armchair Detectives and Ripperologists scratching their head and going, “Who”?

Wynne Weston-Davies, The Real Mary Kelly. Book Review. full post

(598 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

The Raging Squall.

I opened the windows wide to let the squall,

the hurricane in waiting, rage through the house with

typical October Winds fashion, the bluster of a false

premised argument, the storm that fells trees

but cannot whip the coat from a cold woman

as she digs in deep with fingernails more lustful

than when she lingers in bed in lingerie long drawn

over her body.

 

The squall rages, it fires like a coughing dragon,

not with splutter, but with the wet hose

that feeds a Tsunami and the curtains rattle

The Raging Squall. full post

(221 words, estimated 53 secs reading time)

Doctor Who: The Warehouse. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Philip Franks, Dillie Keane, Clare Buckfield, Barry McCarthy, Anna Bentinck, Barnaby Edwards.

Shopping is so engrained into the modern human condition that at times it’s possible to believe that we are the products on display. What is actually being bought is not the plastic container with the animal testing free stamp on the side and the various liquids containing soap, shampoo or washing up liquid or even the multi choice boxes of cereal which promise a great start to the day, but us, each and every one of us. We are poked in our brains, defined by what we look at and ultimately put in our baskets, we are the great shopping experiment and there is no let up with the sale.

Doctor Who: The Warehouse. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(571 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Macbeth, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Elizabeth Debicki, Marion Cotillard, Sean Harris, David Thewlis, Jack Reynor, Paddy Considine, David Hayman, Lynn Kennedy, Maurice Roëves, Seylan Baxter, James Harkness, Roy Sampson.

There are moments when going to the cinema should be a true joy to behold. The merging of both the cinematic experience and theatre portrayed as a guiding light of how to bring out the very best from arguably England’s greatest playwright.

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

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

A Ginsberg Howl In The Bootle Night.

I’m sorry I’m late

as I didn’t want to attend the party

held in my honour, not in my state

of mind, not whilst I could howl

and give regard to the disease that burrows

between each disc and nerve shattering split

decision. I didn’t want to get up on stage

and sing karaoke hits, of meaningless lyrics

or sample a raised finger

buffet that means nothing to me,

for there are days when I cannot play

when I want to howl, scream, wail in the moonlight

A Ginsberg Howl In The Bootle Night. full post

(245 words, estimated 59 secs reading time)

There Are Snipers On The Roofs Of Manchester

There are snipers on the roofs of Manchester,

Special Forces clad in black

to be seen awaiting orders

on which protest they should first attack.

 

There are snipers on the roofs of Manchester,

just how long before they appear in Birmingham,

Newcastle, Edinburgh, Brixton, Bicester, Bootle,

how many bullets down the throats should they cram?

 

There are snipers on the roofs of Manchester,

ready it seems to take apart a crowd

by fair means or foul, with orders given

and no heads in shame bowed.

There Are Snipers On The Roofs Of Manchester full post

(124 words, estimated 30 secs reading time)