The Dirty Bomb, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

July can be seen as month in which experimentation with the senses goes into a kind of overdrive, the pleasure of the discovery of something new going hand in hand with the sultry and aurally naked. The velvet touch offered by a craving to take the heat higher than should be allowed but in which the temptation catches fire and stokes the engine to the point where whistles blow and steam gushes out at such a rate that the explosion of sound spreads out across the room with rapid expansion and the wake of The Dirty Bomb leaving a collection of smiling faces.

The Dirty Bomb, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

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

Richard Thompson, Still. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Richard Thompson is one of the great survivors of Rock and Folk, a man who is the epitome of great song writing and who, even after nearly 40 years of recording and touring has the ability to make each new song sound as though it was plucked from a new born rose and the thought of the aroma of the intoxicating future promised one of great mystery and satisfaction.

Richard Thompson, Still. Album Review. full post

(421 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Pete Townshend, Truancy. The Very Best Of Pete Townshend. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The best of, the culmination of a life’s work, easier perhaps in the artistic world of poetry, film or music than dealing with the general public day after day in a shop or waiting on tables.

Pete Townshend, Truancy. The Very Best Of Pete Townshend. Album Review. full post

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

Naked On 77th Street.

Naked she stood before me, her eyes glistening

with youthful Hispanic desire and the elegance

of her people wrapped in New York 77th Street silk

and I broke my heart as I knew I could not satisfy

that what was given freely.

 

I shuddered as the eleven thirty seven rays of sunshine

hit the window that hid the opulence that blinded

me temporarily to the disease that wanted to be shared

like a needle holding a myriad of confessions

and the straight jacket of conformity.

 

Naked On 77th Street. full post

(275 words, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

My Friends Of Jailors.

I thought I’d take a trip to see an old friend,

meet halfway and agree upon the same conclusion

that it had been far too long since we last spent

Time killing time

and the talk of old things between us,

that bound us and which into Middle Age

no longer mattered.

 

The distance between us was never that far

even after nearly three decades apart

and I reminded him of the blow

by blow replication that he did for me

of my then favourite album cover and wondered if he

My Friends Of Jailors. full post

(237 words, estimated 57 secs reading time)

Millionaires Anonymous, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Geraldine Moloney Judge, Neil MacDonald, Chrissi-Jo Hyde, Lee Burnitt, David Clayton, Albert Hastings, Caitlin Mary Carley Clough.

If money is the root of all flowering evil, then the pursuit of it must be the untilled field. Since its inception the national lottery has produced more millionaires in the country than at any time in its history and yet how many of them have been truly happy or felt blessed beyond their wildest dreams, happy not because of the money and the chance to spend it upon anything they wish, but for it to do real good, to effect real change?

Millionaires Anonymous, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(461 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Amy, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.CT., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Thanks to the pace of modern life and the way that everything is captured in its smallest detail for consumption, it was perhaps inevitable that the life and sad demise of Amy Winehouse would one day make its way on to the screens.

In Amy that focus, the character of the blessed and the cursed are played out in equal measure and the contrast between black and white, the humour of the young Jewish woman and the voice that captured many music fan’s hearts bleeds through to the contextualised colour out of control but sharp conviction that plays out across the two hours.

Amy, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.CT., Liverpool. full post

(563 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Terminator Genisys, Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi, Matt Smith, Courtney B. Vance, Byung-Hun Lee, Michael Gladis, Sandrine Holt, Wayne Bastrup, Gregory Alan Williams, Otto Sanchez, Matty Ferraro, Griff Furst, Robert Patrick, Kerry O’ Malley, Mark Adam, Bryant Prince.

 

At least with a new Terminator film, the public’s suffering at the hands of Terminator: Salvation can now be start to be forgotten, left to rust in its own cage of insipid pop culture and if possible banished from the memory forever, skipped over when watching the series of films back to back and the DVD given away to charity, though to be fair, they might not thank you for it.

Terminator Genisys, Film Review. full post

(498 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

Lord Byron Versus The Hashtag.

Byron wouldn’t have stood a chance

if the world of his time had the mass media

exposure, constant Google up-load

and Facebook name and shame being urged upon

by the two a.m. giggle fit of the warm and instantly forgiven

rant telling like it is, and the recriminations of the following

morning text, you know what you called him girl?

 

He may have revelled for a while, more so than Percy,

in the hashtag-moustached hag, mad, bad and dangerous

to know, but would have been concerned

Lord Byron Versus The Hashtag. full post

(401 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

The Hook, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Joe Alessi, Sean Aydon, Tom Canton, Tim Chipping, Sean Jackson, Sean Murray, Paul Rattray, Jamie Sives, Susie Trayling, Jem Wall, Ewart James Walters, Steven Bradshaw, Adam Byrne, Eric Dean, David Dixon, Kevin Foott, Margaret Gill, Christopher Grundy, Lina Jankauskite, Jackie Jones, Sarah Kelly, Hannah McGowan, Kagen Plant, John Purcell, John Smith, Stephen Turner, Salantha Walton, Curtis Wilson.

The Hook, Theatre Review. Everyman Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(574 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)