Birdsong, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Edmund Wiseman, Emily Bowker, Selma Brook, Max Bowden, Cloudia Swann, Peter Duncan, Emily Altneu, James Staddon, Liam McCormick, Roger Martin, Alastair Whatley, James Findlay.

Even in the foul grip of war, there must be a love that carries the soldier across the boundary between the stench of perpetual death and the sanity that is provided by having something to live for. Love in the midst of war is what keeps the thoughts of ordinary men from turning into barbarians and for those who do the fighting, whether above ground, on the fields of No Man’s Land or in the tunnels, love can be the saving point. Love is a peculiar Birdsong.

Birdsong, Theatre Review. Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. full post

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

Stealing Sheep, Not Real. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

They are one of the most uniquely sounding bands to come out of the twin musical areas of Liverpool and Birmingham for some time but even then it doesn’t guarantee that a new album will have anything the intensity or the overflowing amount of passion that their debut or any of their abundant gigs have had.

Stealing Sheep, Not Real. Album Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Ice (s)Cream Revolution.

We find ourselves with a very unique opportunity

to do the right thing but the British enjoyment of sticking

to the choice supposedly only offered between vanilla and raspberry

stops Mint Choc from ever being tasted on a Day in May afternoon.

 

It is a very British howl of complaint

that at the back of our minds, the thought that struggles to be free

and roam wild, perhaps by not going down the same old, same old

tired route and certainly keeping away from that foul

Ice (s)Cream Revolution. full post

(255 words, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

Beth Hart, Better Than Home. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

You can ask for many things in life, world peace, the end to hunger, humanity living side by side in genuine respect…the list is endless and in all honesty hardly likely to happen. You can though, and surely must always be allowed the privilege of hearing a Beth Hart album at some point during the busy weeks ahead. This is a pre-requisite for getting through Time, the chance to listen to a genuine female legend of 21st Century Blues Rock at her prolific best. This prolific, demanding the clearest mind’s attention nature is captured in true style with her latest release, Better Than Home.

Beth Hart, Better Than Home. Album Review. full post

(540 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Harriet!, Hidden Messages. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

There will always be those that say that different generations cannot relate to each other, that the signs and signals sent out by one, are at best taken as nonsense and that they haven’t lived yet, at worst, degraded to the point of supreme arrogance and as condescending as anybody could ever hope to achieve.

Harriet!, Hidden Messages. E.P. Review. full post

(408 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Cobain: Montage Of Heck, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Too many modern Rock and music documentaries live in the moment; they are stifled by the effects of the past and constricted by image. The opposite is perhaps arguably true of the biopic, one that in many ways glamorises the person involved, certain areas of life, of thoughts and deeds airbrushed out, spoken as if acting as a token, a memento in which the picture doesn’t want to go down a certain route but invites the viewer to do it on their own but no staging post of reference to the impact on other significant lives.

Cobain: Montage Of Heck, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(634 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

Morrison’s Lover.

…And all you wanted more than life

was to say you had slept with Jim Morrison,

it didn’t matter where or how, you just wanted that infamy,

the fame and glory, the smile of pleasure

the ring of tears when the camera pointed at you dressed in black

at the poet’s graveside, grieving but with a story to tell…

lots of stories to tell and not all of them yours to share.

 

You brushed hair in a certain style before I came round

knocking on the red wooden door, the only thing that

Morrison’s Lover. full post

(393 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)

Kevin Critchley, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time is both cruel and unusual, as well being the well thought of great healer. It asks so much of us and in many ways offers so little in return. To be able to find time to watch all the great bands that come your way, that visit your nearest venue is an almost an impossible ask; to follow round every possible staging post one of the great young acts that the city has nurtured over the last few years is sadly unworkable in the modern age, to do deprives your attention from others, just as deserving, just as enjoyable, and yet when Kevin Critchley comes on stage, Time does its best to hold back the constant ticking.

Kevin Critchley, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(483 words, estimated 1:56 mins reading time)

Jenny Strand, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In recent years Norway has given so much to Liverpool’s present musical heritage that it is almost becoming a true tradition to be able to walk into any venue in the wider city and hear the flowing tones of the Nordic ability for storytelling transformed into epic song played, and fully appreciated.

It is the long standing convention that people of Scandinavia have their culture and their physical geography to thank for that, like Britain, of Europe but not immersed fully into the characteristics of their land locked neighbours further south or the mysterious tales that come from Mediterranean culture. With the addition of Jenny Strand to that heritage, the future has yet more reason to be hopeful.

Jenny Strand, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(434 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

The Hazel Empire, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

A certain combined wisdom can come together when like-minded people are in sync, inspiration can strike and the effect is not only tangible but far-reaching.

For The Hazel Empire, inspiration and wisdom go hand in hand with musical enjoyment and like all flourishing Empires, the seeds of knowledge cast their net wide and more people find themselves drawn to the apparent mysticism contained within.

The Hazel Empire, Gig Review. Strings And Things, Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(361 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)