Ryk Mead & The London Blues Band, Chicago. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Chicago is a city built on several distinct sounds, the echoes of the past at times which reverberate and regurgitate over and over again, a beautiful, vibrant city but one caught arguably in its own musical demise and with only a few choice new names brave enough to try and tear that down.

Ryk Mead & The London Blues Band’s Chicago on the other hand is a place filled with opportunity in which 11 songs offer a fresh almost tantalising sound of innate pleasure and in which, whilst steeped in the Blues, is not overawed by the past association of a genre that has stepped out of its own terminal pre-21st shadow and become a vivacious and almost flamboyant beauty once more.

Ryk Mead & The London Blues Band, Chicago. Album Review. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Moon Raker Sky.

You may grasp for the gold under the soil

and all the platinum from the ground,

take whatever diamonds you need to impress, the coal the oil

take the flesh from my back if you wish, pound after pound.

 

Riches after all make this world go round.

The art of purchase, of ownership, of wealth and prosperity,

the conformation of a life well lived, of the jewel laden echo after the sound;

long may you reign, I will cheer if you wish but it’s not the life for me.

 

Moon Raker Sky. full post

(157 words, estimated 38 secs reading time)

Don McLean, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

Don McLean at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Don McLean at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Living legends, the serious list of those steeped in folklore and certain amounts of musical mythology, gets smaller and reduces in size every year. It is the way of things that for the generations past the heroes they grew up with, that they hummed alongside and perhaps even learned to play in some honorary fashion some of the gentle chords that turned them on to life, will all pass into the great gig in the sky and leave a huge musician sized hole in their wake.

Don McLean, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(612 words, 1 image, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Night Collar, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jake Abrahams, Eithne Browne, Suzanne Collins, Michael Ledwich, Alan Stocks, Lenny Wood.

Confession and revelation is not confined to the unburdening of souls in the wooden box that adorns many a church, the simple act of sticking a paw out for a taxi when time, tide and the day is against you is perhaps arguably a more sincere way of getting the troubles of the soul purged, for the taxi driver hears all, sees all and unless you happen to become the topic of conversation which revolves around the words, “You’ll never guess who I had in the back of my cab last week”, then your secret torment, bad relationship, money troubles, who you would like to see bumped off, what you think of the council, all are kept secret.

Night Collar, Theatre Review. Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(567 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Chelsey Chambers, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool.

 

Chelsey Chambers at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Chelsey Chambers at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. May 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

 

To be invited to open up a gig before a legend of American music must either be a dream come true or a millstone in which heads droop in realisation of the enormity of what has been agreed to. Either way, the only true course of action is to stand up and be counted, shoulders back, guitar primed and let the music flow out of you as if it is the most natural thing in the world to do.

Chelsey Chambers, Gig Review. Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. full post

(438 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Natasia Bullock.

Natasia Bullock sits in F.A.C.T. on Wood Street and surveys the passing stream of people going through the day, like ghosts passing through time, the vapour trail they leave is one that is coloured and magical. The smile on her face never wavers as the assured pleasantries and the usual conversation pieces of two people who know each other well enough to be comfortable in each other’s company, not matter what side of the question they come from.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Sunday Postscript, An Interview With Natasia Bullock. full post

(1429 words, estimated 5:43 mins reading time)

On The Day That Banjo Don Came To Town.

The evening that Banjo Don came back to town,

the sun curtseyed in the west and nodded its approval

and smiled a boyish grin at the grand old man and his upturned frown;

the banjo acolytes, the notes all slightly out of tune and reluctant call

compared to the sound that their chosen master. Banjo Don

took to the streets and under a glowing sun

proved that the people had missed his sound, for no one can

play the strings with melodic ease or deliver a grin when playing for fun,

On The Day That Banjo Don Came To Town. full post

(325 words, estimated 1:18 mins reading time)

Fables: War And Pieces, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The war is over, the battles, at great cost, have been won and the exiled fables have been saved in part to the heroics of Bibgy Wolf, Prince Charming and Boy Blue, yet deep down, even with Geppetto being captured and the puppet adversary finally succumbing to overwhelming odds, the reader and fan of Bill Willingham’s highly delightful fantasy graphic novels knows that the real test is still to come and that Fables: War and Pieces is only the end of the beginning.

Fables: War And Pieces, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(490 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Next Door But One, Theatre Review. Cornerstone Theatre, Liverpool.

Rob Kavanagh, part of Next Door But One. Photograph by Roisin Fletcher.

Rob Kavanagh, part of Tell Tale Theatre’s Next Door But One. Photograph by Roisin Fletcher.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Rob Kavanagh, Paula Stewart, Shaun Roberts, Dan Edwards, Stui Dagnall, Tom Nevitt, Alex Clark, Kevin Foot-Stephens, Christine Heaney, Leanne Jones, Laura Hall, Sara O’ Connor, Bradley Thompson, Donna Ray-Coleman.

It has become a sign of the times that as a society we are more likely to know what is happening on the far side of the Atlantic Ocean in some stranger’s lives as we use social media to keep up with a celebratory who is in fashion then truly to get to grips with those to whom in the case of accident would be naturally first on the scene, the next door neighbour or the person across the road.

Next Door But One, Theatre Review. Cornerstone Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(544 words, 1 image, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Mozhan Marnò, Dominic Rains, Rome Shandanloo, Milad Eghbali, Reza Sixo Safai, Ray Haratian, Ana Lily Amirpour, Pej Vahdat.

There are some films that may be viewed with the long eyed lens and intrigue and you still will find it hard to justify what about it exactly catches your imagination and the sense of thrill that shimmers down your spine. Then there is the top one percent of the cinematic experiences that really have you salivating at the unknown and wondering why such a film has not been made before.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

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