I find myself more drawn to the past
than I have found myself in decades.
The rose coloured telescope pinpointing with
alarming accuracy what I already knew
but was too deaf, to blind and stupid
to understand what could have been
if I’d had the courage to stay and not move
on once more.
The past, the illusion of fine weather days,
of fresh country air filling my lungs
and cleansing the stuffy headed inoculation
first given to me in a needle fit to burst
We stand assured, macadam solid under boot.
Left and right, road ribbons to nothing.
Behind us the surety of a familiar way, ahead?
A drenched black canvas without features,
save for sodden bog pocked with grit grey stone,
way marked by twisted bloomless gorse.
A dun mud mire rising toward a hidden summit,
our goal, unseen. On Black Hill.
Rotting layers of long dead musty forest.
The fossil fragments of ancient timbers,
past splintering present.
Strike out with firm resolve onto quivering morass,
soaked ground sucks at uncertain feet.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
There is almost nothing like listening to a strong positive woman perform the music she wants to and recording it with no hindrance, no outside thought of what other may think and best of all, no use of overtly sexual tactics in which far too many young female pop stars resort to in a wide of the mark belief that their music empowers young girls but also converts boys to their cause. For brains and outstanding ability will always beat the sexualisation of a song, the likes of Kate Bush, Nicola Bendetti and Tori Amos are more in keeping with observing a positive female role for both genders than the likes of anyone who has to expose more than their thoughts on screen.
The darkness of the night crowds in
and I’m left alone with grinning spectres
plaguing my twilight hours and my uncomfortable state
of mind, fragile, insistent, running so fast
that smoke billows out and only one idea in a million
sees the dawn and breathes deeply
at surviving
another unseen, obscure dusk.
I want to scream, so drawn to the darkness
that envelopes me, that barely a whisper of mortal love
for the shadows and the fog crosses my cracked open mouth
and the declaration of irresistible devotion
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
That dreadful watchword of buzz is more than likely to bandied around as if being chased by Africanised bees with a group of angry hornets following up behind, sleeves rolled up and spoiling for a fight, as soon as world beyond Liverpool finally cottons on to Black Diamond. Already a huge firm favourite with the heavy Rock crowd in the city, their debut E.P. Stranglehold, is sure to add a heavier amount of support to their flourishing output and good name.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Mention the word Oklahoma to the average person from Britain and Howard Keel singing baritone against a grainy American backdrop would very possibly be high upon the list of watchwords used to describe the Sooner State. For the more historically minded, the former Native American land would throw up images of both national importance, the swarming despair of the Dust Bowl era and internal political division that had far reaching ramifications, which ever thought is mentioned, Oklahoma is a state that never quite springs to mind when thinking of a place to visit, nestled as it is a place firmly caught between East and West Coast sophistication and artistic endeavour.
It is almost as if scientists have discovered
a new subsection of Humanity
that never appeared in the growing pains
of the species between ape and man.
The new hailing stone of enlightenment
and information which comes our way via the mass
media in which the modern discovery was made
suggests that this scientific breathing wonder
that eats, sleeps, makes love and has the capacity
for great artistic endeavour
they found
crossing the seas in search of life
should not exist
and yet as they die in their hundreds,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Time has such an effect on the way we as a species perceive things that it is possible to feel part of two different eras at the same time. The human capacity for imagination adds much colour to the feeling of displacement that at times a certain sound or perhaps a headline in a newspaper or even the smell of a long lost lover can transport the person back to a place where they have no right to be, lost in the cacophony and melodrama of Time.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10
At one time it was one of the biggest music labels on the planet, it spawned the idea of power and elegance all wrapped up in one hybrid motion and the hits kept coming and the music kept on playing. Like Detroit itself, the sound of Motown is unfashionable to many now, the factories, the people, the abundant sound, in many ways a former glory in which dreams were once made and in which thousands of artists have revelled in.
There are some performers who come into your life that no matter how dispassionate and impartial you try to be about them, you cannot help but wish them so much success in their chosen career.
For Wrexham’s Luke Gallagher, any chance to see him play should be grabbed and held for all it’s worth, for this a young man whose quiet and polite demeanour holds deep fascination, the unflustered heart of a young man with the spirit of a total professional and one who sings with maturity beyond his years, is a talent of wealth and experience and the soft lilt of the North Welsh border town strides like a giant across the mountains of music history.