Dior And I, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The art of the documentary is to give you a glimpse into a world that you may never have imagined being drawn into. To step so far out of your comfort zone, to truly take in what is being said about a subject that you may have absolutely no interest in whatsoever and to give you an appreciation, a glimmering of insight and comprehension in the complex lives of others. It is to thank inwardly the documentary makers for their diligence; even if at the end of it you are still none the wiser for the fascination of said subject.

Dior And I, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Blancmange, Semi Detached. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

In adversity comes the greatest of challenges, to overcome adversity twice, albeit for two very different reasons is a mark of greatness. There never really should be any doubt that Blancmange bring a mark of greatness to the table that cannot be fully appreciated unless you took the band for the every word in the respective periods they have come to be associated with. Two eras separated by time, by complication and inconvenience and exemplified wonderfully by the new album, Semi Detached.

Blancmange, Semi Detached. Album Review. full post

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

The Laying To Rest Of Mad King March.

…With one last roar of bitterness and pain,

King March lets go, of his life as he knew it,

of everything that went before and understood

Lord Tiresias’ wise words

that were concerned with pleasure.

“Pleasure, not this agony of Regal state in which

My subjects below me run into shadows, hide in corners

and bow to me because I force them too, because

I am damned to always believe them to be

nothing more than baseless, they do not understand the

relating pressure I feel as lord of this once

The Laying To Rest Of Mad King March. full post

(397 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Equilibrium, Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Mark Strickland, Annette Badland, Nickolas Grace, Joanna Kirkland, John Albasiny, Ella Kenion.

E-Space has ensnared The Doctor. Thanks to the mechanical, mathematic genius mind of the now dead Adric, the Doctor in his fifth incarnation and his three young companions are cut adrift from the Universe and with little hope of finding their way back, it seems as though their stay in E-Space will become a lengthy and unbalanced one.

Doctor Who: Equilibrium, Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

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

Gretchen Peters, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It’s not often Liverpool has a member of the prestigious Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame within its midst. The rare occurrence, as uncommon as the sight of solar eclipse without it being obscured by both dark threatening clouds and forethought in positional judgement, is one that should be relished. In Liverpool terms it is like going across to Nashville and finding the great Pete Wylie delivering a monumental set to wild enthusiastic Country music lovers, it is a set many in the city would dearly love to happen for the auspicious and celebrated lover of Merseyside.

Gretchen Peters, Gig Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(489 words, estimated 1:57 mins reading time)

Me And Deboe, Gig Review. Constellations, Threshold 2015, Liverpool.

Me and Deboe, Threshold 2015. Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To perform in unison when the weather is perfect is to be expected. To perform with an air of gliding ease indoors with the natural ambiance afforded to you, and the audience smiling with a sense of satisfaction, that is almost a given.

Me And Deboe, Gig Review. Constellations, Threshold 2015, Liverpool. full post

(552 words, 1 image, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Jo Bywater, Gig Review. Constellations, Threshold 2015. Liverpool.

Jo Bywater, Threshold 2015, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Jo Bywater stands aloft on the stage at Constellations and the world feels as though it is about to shift, quake and feel the pressure of talented guitar fury. To be fair to Ms. Bywater, whichever stage she graces, that same feeling emanates from the tips of her fingers to the assembled crowd, it is not new but it is surely immensely powerful and as part of the fifth year of Threshold, that guitar fury, not thrashed, not beaten, just quiet reflective anger but held in a song which sounds as sweet as the first drops of rain after a long protracted drought, is as needed as the very act of breathing, it is a Liverpool soul.

Jo Bywater, Gig Review. Constellations, Threshold 2015. Liverpool. full post

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

Three Minute Hero, Gig Review. Constellations, Threshold 2015. Liverpool.

Three Minute Hero. Threshold 2015, Liverpool. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Stuart Todd may go by the name of Three Minute Hero but this conscious driven musician is no flash in the pan, no three minute wonder when it comes to delivering songs with social bite and society angst. Every city, every market place in every village, town centre or urban conurbation deserves someone like Three Minute Hero, someone to whom the maverick town crier can be held up as an example to, not delivering news to the masses which has been scripted, shaped and fawned over by ministers and their collected yes men, but the ideas and truth of what we have in place.

Three Minute Hero, Gig Review. Constellations, Threshold 2015. Liverpool. full post

(369 words, 1 image, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Darkness of Glass. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Mark Lewis Jones, Julian Wadham, Sinead Keenan, Rory Keenan, Nicholas Briggs.

The glass is never half full for the Doctor. There should be a point in the Doctor’s life where someone sits him down and examines in depth, just what would happen if boredom ever got the better of him! For even in the smallest detail of finding himself cut off from his Tardis on a stretch of lonely beach, there is always a house on an island in which the allusion to an Agatha Christie novel will appear.

Doctor Who: The Darkness of Glass. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

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

Mad King March Sees The Folly Of His Ways.

The last throws of his titanic, obliterating, rage upon him,

Mad King March sinks into solitude and reckless despair.

He had known all his life that his anger was wasted

on the faithful subjects who had grown to love him,

as they had every March before him, for Mad King March

understood that the time was at hand in which,

baring disaster, baring cosmic storms and ice so ravenous that would

carve death into the heart of the Universe, it was time to start

thinking of the future, the January babe, medieval child in arms,

Mad King March Sees The Folly Of His Ways. full post

(209 words, estimated 50 secs reading time)