Narvick, Theatre Review. Studio, Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Joe Shipman, Nina Yndis, Lucas Smith.

Musicians: Lizzie Nunnery, Martin Heslop, Vidar Norheim.

In many ways the war in Norway has been pretty much forgotten by many in the U.K. and beyond. The thought these days seems to centre on the fields of France, the systematic destruction of Eastern Europe and the polarised viewpoints of the war in the Far East. Yet Norway and especially for her citizens, the uneasy liaisons that lay between opposing Nazi rule and the fraternisation that reigned in the hearts of her young women starved of male attention and the deaths of so many her young men has somehow been cleansed, sanitised and thrown into the same realms of forgetfulness as those faced by the Channel Islands.

Narvick, Theatre Review. Studio, Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(440 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

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

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, Taron Egerton, Paul Bettany, David Thewlis, Christopher Eccleston, Colin Morgan, Paul Anderson, Aneurin Barnard, Chazz Palminteri, Tara Fitzgerald, Kevin McNally, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Sam Hoare, Shane Attwooll, Samantha Pearl, Jane Wood, John Sessions.

 

There was nothing glamorous about the Krays, not in the strictest sense of the word and yet they held the East End of London in such a thrall that glamour took on a completely different meaning. It was physical allure of charm personified to an area of London that had been treated for too long as the personal plaything of the destructive and warped; so why should the Swinging Sixties be any different.

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

(457 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

A Short Goodbye.

I wish I had the courage

to say goodbye,

farewell, properly,

to look myself in the eyes

shake my hand

and go

with a whistle of fortune and

follow myself towards

anti-climax

that is offered the very best

when they find

absolute strength

of character to leave, leave, begone

from the pull,

squeezing heave

of the weight of expectation insisted

by the moon

shining brightly

into the dead centre of hope…

my hope today

now gone.

 

A Short Goodbye. full post

(84 words, estimated 20 secs reading time)

Bouncers, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2015).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Paul Broughton, Danny O’ Brien, Andrew Schofield, Michael Starke.

The night is young, the perfume is sprayed with liberal application, the smell of the aftershave overpowers the testosterone emanating from the raw majesty that is the Friday night club and disco and the D.J., who might not save your life on the night but who will certainly play a few good numbers to get the girls up and dancing, is full of ready innuendo. If your names are not down though and you’re not ready to party with the best doormen around then the Bouncers, on behalf of the management, reserve the right to make you laugh long into the night.

Bouncers, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. (2015). full post

(465 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

The Rails, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Certain traits and particular talents are always handed down through the D.N.A. but it takes lots of hard work on behalf of the receiver of such good fortune to make their talent shine through and seem as effortless as breathing in fresh air.

For Kamila Thompson, the daughter of arguably one of the finest Folk/Rock music writers of the last 50 years, and James Walbourne, collectively known as The Rails, to perform for the Philharmonic Hall crowd ahead of Richard Thompson long anticipated night in Liverpool was one that was shrouded in a type of delicate cool and inspiring vocal delivery.

The Rails, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

New Tricks: The Fame Game. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Tamzin Outhwaite, Larry Lamb, Michael Higgs, Tracey Ann Oberman, Eva Pope, Harry Lister Smith, Michael Fenton Stevens, Lucy Benjamin, Tim Chipping.

The world of fame has spawned some pretty weird moments, instances where to some the mind is blown that people would actively seek such celebrity without even having done anything in their life. The trickle-down effect of such adoration is even more prevalent when you can go into schools and ask what they want from life and the answer you can often hear is one, “I want to be famous”, yet they don’t know what for. Fame for fame’s sake is not something that truly should be encouraged and yet somehow the world of looking like somebody else, to pretend to be someone else is The Fame Game personified.

New Tricks: The Fame Game. Television Review. full post

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

Blood.

I cannot help

but wonder where you are,

blood of my blood

tainted by greed and polluted

by urge to take beyond

what is reasonable…

 

…blood of my blood,

you start to fade but I hang on

to the confusions of your life

and wonder at the marvel

that could have been

instead of the path I know you found yourself

upon and to which you once said

I was to blame, that everybody

was to blame…

 

except you…

 

Blood. full post

(173 words, estimated 42 secs reading time)

Richard Thompson, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

For many, Richard Thompson is the voice of the bereft and the forgotten, the loud speaker against injustice and arguably the British Folk equivalent of Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan. It is easy to see why when he performs in such determined spirit and absolute certainty of belief in front of a Liverpool audience that hung upon every one of his words as if following a gospel sermon and to whom as the night finished with the pulse of a musical manifesto from his long and outstanding career still ringing in the ears, rose as one to give a standing ovation that was clear, concise and rampant with pleasure.

Richard Thompson, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(469 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

American Ultra. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Topher Grace, Walton Coggins, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman, Tony Hale, Stuart Greer, Michael Papajohn.

There are films that will come to the cinema, present themselves as being slightly off beat and which despite the overwhelming reasons why you shouldn’t like them, you can’t help but be drawn to their physical being. The same goes with some actors, you are unsure to why they have risen so highly up the scale of Box office requirements but you cannot help but like their performances on screen. When these two states of mind mix and merge, that feeling is intensified to the point where you really are not surprised if the sky turns a shade of purple and a lottery win is on the cards.

American Ultra. Film Review. full post

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

I Am Afraid Of The Sandman.

I am afraid of the Sandman…

…I am afraid…

of closing my eyes at night

or during the day and knowing

that it could be the last time I do so

as I realise that the Sandman

is not just the spirit who puts you to sleep

but does so via violent dreams

and sprinkles encrusted poison

into your eyes that makes you groggy

and weak as you succumb naturally

to the smile of Morpheus …

 

I am afraid

of letting go and seeing the Sandman,

I Am Afraid Of The Sandman. full post

(165 words, estimated 40 secs reading time)