Franca, Theatre Review. Lantern Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Roberta Laguardia.

The life and work of Italian artist, feminist and political activist Franca Rame might not be that well known but in a collaborative effort between Italian actress Roberta Laguardia and the Lantern Theatre, two pieces of work her work were performed and all with the blessing of Franca Rame’s long-time collaborator and heir to her estate, Dario Fo to a Liverpool audience.

The evening started with an informed and informative introduction to the life and work of Franca Rame by Liverpool-based performer and academic Brian Desmond before settling down to the first of the two pieces of work on offer, The Rape.

Franca, Theatre Review. Lantern Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(846 words, estimated 3:23 mins reading time)

Inspector George Gently: Son Of A Gun. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Lisa McGrillis, Jody Latham, Elizabeth Carling, Simon Hubbard, Danny Cunningham, Patrick Mcnamee, Annabel Scholey, Tom Hutch, Emma Lundy, Rosie Wyatt, Lucian Msamati, William Graham, Paul Hamilton.

 

For every generation must come a time when it watches those who will replace them with wonder, dread and in some cases frightened to death of what will happen to them and those not wishing to follow in their size nines. For those that lived through the Second World War and fought for the peace that was won afterwards, to see the actions of some of the young, untempered by the hardships and reality of fighting against an enemy that wanted to destroy you but who in turn wanted to sweep away everything that you had fought desperately for, must have been like watching a tidal wave of exhausting hatred and bile.

Inspector George Gently: Son Of A Gun. Television Review. full post

(546 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

Static And Still.

The ghost sits waiting patiently till I am half way

to a paradise of exhausted slumber before it somehow

manages to turn the radio over to medium wave.

The sound of the crisp digital broadcast suddenly lost,

abandoned into the vaporous ether like wisps of smoke

drifting out to sea and drowned out by the sound of Nelson’s drum

beating slowly as it recognises that some part of the country

is about to drown.  Not my part surely as I wake with groggy eyes

puffed up and swollen from the ghostly attack on my right

Static And Still. full post

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

Barnum, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Brian Conley, Linzi Hateley, Kimberley Blake, Landi Oshinowo, Mikey Jay-Heath, John Stacey, Georgie Ashford, Greg Bernstein, David Birch, Courtney-Mae Briggs, Nick Butcher, Alison Connell, Stefan Dopazo, Lewis Easter, Chris Gage, Joanna Goodwin, Pascal Haering, Rebecca Hawkins, Erin Jameson, Jennifer Robinson, Louis Stockil, Lucy Thatcher, Edward Wade.

Barnum, Theatre Review. Empire Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(592 words, estimated 2:22 mins reading time)

Anti Flag, American Spring. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is something uniquely special about the great American steel town of Pittsburgh, nestled alongside a river as imposing to look at from above as the Mersey, Tyne or the Thames. The richness of the area is to be seen in its culture, historical links to almost every momentous occasion in the United States and the ties that made it a place to covet both during the wars between both sides of the independence debate and that between America’s soul of the Civil war.

Anti Flag, American Spring. Album Review. full post

(500 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

On The Day I Met Shaun Goater.

On the day I met Shaun Goater, I realised I had met

a living legend of Blue persuasion,

one who ranked with Colin Bell, Peter Barnes,

Uve Rossler, Asa Hartford and Bert Trautmann

as the hand I wanted to shake for being themselves

when placing the blue shirt above all in the name of the Kippax

and the beauty in despair of being an exiled Citizen.

 

From the first game away at Birmingham City,

a bus journey from Selly Park, from where soon

a picture of Joe Corrigan would look down

On The Day I Met Shaun Goater. full post

(313 words, estimated 1:15 mins reading time)

JoyFocus, Random Access Digital Audio Heresy. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It’s not a sound a listener might expect to have come from the gateway to the west, a city that is more in touch arguably with the Chicago Blues, heavy rock, the sound of Jazz and Gospel naturally permeate the city skyline and the luminance of Robert Lamm and the brilliance of Peter Cetera hang heavy over the city’s past and possibly the future. Yet for Chicago-based JoyFocus the sound that weaves its way through the past like a hi-speed chase involving a one armed man and an irate and falsely accused Doctor is both invigorating and encompassing.

JoyFocus, Random Access Digital Audio Heresy. Album Review. full post

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

Eskimo Callboy, Crystals. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The unexpected is a tale that can simmer with delight or be so damning that it’s hard to understand what was going through the heads of the participants involved. The best mix of this is when both collide head on like two rutting stags vying for the attention of a doe whose just been left a four bedroom apartment in the middle of New York and commanding views of Central Park, some stags aren’t going to give up on that prize easily.

Eskimo Callboy, Crystals. Album Review. full post

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

A Multi-Storied Building Anywhere In The World.

The view from up here is magnificent, the possibilities endless

but it has to be beyond memorable to catch everyone’s eye

and make them sigh inwardly with a rush

of pleasure that they may have seen a piece of you

as they go on their way past the noise of seagulls

as they flap in God-like unison looking for the worms on the very bottom

where you actually reside and breath.

 

As they climb back down the stairs and every so often pause

to see how the view looks from a different perspective,

A Multi-Storied Building Anywhere In The World. full post

(371 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Blake Jones & The Trike Shop, Gig Review. International Pop Overthrow 2015. The Cavern, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The title of Lords of the back stage at The Cavern of this year’s International Pop Overthrow might be fought over with the same ferocity as men would have squabbled, bickered and fought over the throne of England in the days when such things mattered, arguably though one of the main contenders would surely be the inventive and insanely talented Blake Jones & The Trike Shop.

Blake Jones & The Trike Shop, Gig Review. International Pop Overthrow 2015. The Cavern, Liverpool. full post

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