They might look like big cats from way up here,
Kings of the jungle, the lords of all they survey,
a roar so loud that it can be heard across five miles of open
scrubland and all who perch by the dwindling pool,
sucking up
precious water, live in fear of the noise that travels far
and in terror of what lurks beneath the stillness.
They are not Kings, lords, unless of misrule,
they are though beasts, savage and bloodthirsty
cock-sure and baying for the blood of an innocent,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
To be able to narrate a deeply personal tale, to share in what adventures you have faced in your life or to even be able to exorcise the demons of a failing or doomed relationship takes guts and the ability to relate to your audience, the ability to look them in the eye as you are talking away and know that they are interested and engaged, not checking their watch every few minutes to see when they themselves can move on.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Rock sometimes gets a bad press, the same can be said of Heavy Metal or any of its splintered but not divisive forms. There will always be those that somewhere along the line use the musical format as a whipping boy, that it is the ideal appearance in which to shove all of a nation’s ills upon. It happens all too frequently in some places in the United States of America and perhaps more disturbingly in some quarters in the land of ever diminishing free speech. The patience of the bully is seemingly absolute and should not be allowed to spread its words or actions.
I have in my family tree
only one person in five hundred years
who was born in Ireland, technically that makes me one
in five hundred and twelfth of the Emerald Isle.
Even then it was by default as he was born at his mother’s insistence
as she could no longer hold on to the pull of the umbilical cord
and would kill any man
with a face of black thunder who tried
to stop her getting rid
of her impetuous fairy like Cornish-Scottish hybrid load
and to history, who knows,
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Debbie Kurup, Matt Rawle, Simon Rouse, Hugh Sachs, Jayne Wymark, Zoe Rainey, Alex Young, Adam Dutton, Bob Harms, Nick Len, Andy Yau, Michelle Andrews, Anouska Eaton, Jack Evans, Victoria Hinde, Lauren Jade, Rebecca Jayne-Davies, Michael Lin, Dylan Mason, Joanne Lee Marrtin, Ryan Pidgen, Adam Rhys-Charles, Rohan Richards, Tom Partridge, Alexandra Waite-Roberts.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Martin Clunes, Charles Edwards, Art Malik, Hattie Morahan, Emma Fielding, Alan McKenna, Conleth Hill, Hilary Maclean, Pearl Chada, Timothy Watson, Matthew Marsh, John Hollingworth, Ciaran Owens, Aaron Chawla, Lewis Crossland, Nicholas Chambers, Simon Meacock, Dean Ashton, Alexander Aze, Abbey Marise Butler, Michael Hadley, Lewis Kempster, Sonia Ritter, Timothy Walker.
Some writer’s lives are even more colourful and incident packed than those they create, some have the lives thrust upon them and some, a select few, such as Arthur Conan Doyle have lives that make reading a sheer work of art.
The empty buildings that surround the concrete, hole encrusted
patch of ground, reflect thought of just how poor
the area has become.
The first great depression of the twenty-first century
claims all in this northern town by the Mersey
and the Sunday car boot sale, a few stalls and a van with steaming
piles of bacon, has become the highlight of the week for many.
It is the chance to meet up and sell the remains of a home,
a fractured mess in which no-one talks of
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is not the first time that Steve Hackett has employed the nature of another place in which to invoke the stirrings of imagery, and yet, the concept of Wolflight is one that perhaps goes further than ever before to reach out beyond the natural and self imposed boundary and limits in which some fans of the virtuoso performer seem to place upon the experiences they feel when listening to the musician. It is a convention that has always required confrontation, one with a velvet glove and a sweet beauty, but still the challenge of perspective freedom must be attained.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It is not against the law to have conflicting emotions when listening to a new song by a band of great repute, to understand those conflictions though when they are born out of knowing that whether past offerings were of very good quality and the immediate impact that a new sound, a solid state of reflection and increased buoyancy, somehow surpasses it; it only goes to show the heart that Things Get Better, no matter how much the past influences the present.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Memories are stirred with equal measure when hearing a album recorded live; passion, regret, the mourning of a long forgotten time and person who shared a moment with you, the extremes of life which culminate in a series of vivid, fleeting recollections and stark reminisce. For the former voice of Runrig and very much his own man, Donnie Munro, memories must surely be held out as if living the moment again and again whilst always striving ever onward, a Sweet Surrender, both to the past and the endless possibilities the future provides.