Tommy Scott, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Tommy Scott performing at Leaf, Liverpool. March 2015. Photograph reproduced with kind permission by Adran Wharton.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The flickering light supplied by the one reading lamp placed by an antique looking but initially comfortable chair, an audience waiting patiently, the sharp suit complementing the darkness that was settling in as Winter’s icy grip was beginning to thaw, two highly praised musicians waiting by his side, a small inflatable bird perched in his eye line. This was all that was needed to further enhance the ambience and feel of a wonderful 19^th Century night of warning, musings and acoustically charged music was for Tommy Scott to deliver his evening at Leaf on Bold Street in the stylised tones of Edgar Allen Poe and a mysterious knocking on the lift at the back from a talkative raven.

Tommy Scott, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(497 words, 1 image, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

Satin Beige, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Satin Beige performing at Leaf in Liverpool. March 2015. Photograph reproduced with kind permission by Adrian Wharton.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

As Satin Beige finishes her support slot to Tommy Scott at Leaf, it’s possible to sit back and reflect upon a raw and flowering special talent that has just awoken many lost memories with her wonderful cello playing; exotic but with more than a hint of the moody regal nature that emanates from every pore and fibre of this young performer.

Satin Beige, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(425 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Chappie, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Ninja, Yo-Landi Visser, Hugh Jackman, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Sigourney Weaver, Brandon Auret, Johnny Selema, Anderson Cooper, Maurice Carpede, Jason Cope, Kevin Otto, Chris Shields, Robert Hobbs, Eugene Khumbanyiwa.

There are many ways to exercise demons, especially when it has been an unfathomable monster such as the political system in South Africa which denied basic rights to the overwhelming majority in a country that has thankfully started to reap the seeds sown by Nelson Mandela. It is how you represent those demons in a modern context that makes a film shine.

Chappie, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T. Liverpool. full post

(602 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

The Musketeers: The Prodigal Father. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tom Burke, Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Alexandra Dowling, Ryan Gage, Tamla Kari, Maimie McCoy, Luke Pasqualino, Hugh Speer, Marc Warren, Phoebe Dynevor, Ellie Bamber, Liam Cunningham, Emma Hamilton, Ed Stoppard, Ben Addis, Amanda Wass.

It’s hard enough on the soul when we find out what our friends are like when they turn against us, what it does to the fragile nature of inner peace when we find out what are parents are capable of, especially if like Porthos, one of them has been conveniently missing for the whole of your life, is an emotional response that you might not wish upon a sworn enemy.

The Musketeers: The Prodigal Father. Television Review. full post

(477 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

The Words I Love You.

When I was young, love was a different concept to what it is now.

I once laid down in the grass by Brill Hill ready to tell you

how much I loved you , to declare at the top of my voice

to the clouds streaming past in military order, clean as a whistle, that I

truly could not imagine life without you and not realising for a single minute

as we both sat there, the grass staining our arses

through the cheap childish clothes we wore, breathless and steaming

The Words I Love You. full post

(477 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Rumours Of Fleetwood Mac, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. (2015).

Rumours Of Fleetwood Mac at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, March 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

It cannot be easy being bracketed as cover’s band, especially when you have the ringing endorsement of one of the group ring loud and clear across the venue in which you are performing in and every note sound as delicious, as astoundingly melancholic and brutally sharp as anything the main band in question laid down in their fifty year career. This perhaps is arguably compounded when the band are on tour themselves within a few months and that same band is held with so much deep affection that it crushes the heart and causes shortness of breath. For Rumours of Fleetwood Mac though, they have that endorsement for a reason, they truly capture the soul, the very essence of what Fleetwood Mac represents.

Rumours Of Fleetwood Mac, Gig Review. Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. (2015). full post

(526 words, 1 image, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

My Own Little Run Away.

It used to be so easy to dream of running away,

to throw in the towel and become forgotten quickly in one day.

Leave all behind and always start a new

be a vagabond, a tramp in new clothing, with no expectation from anyone

because they hadn’t got used to you.

Just turn up in a different town one day,

the fresh faced boy on the street, the accent from far away.

Nobody gave a damn because they had no idea,

but they gave a damn when I could not fit in, a ragged detestable man

My Own Little Run Away. full post

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

Vamps, Bloodsuckers. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

When you’re big in Japan, pretty much you can be assured a cult following anywhere in the world. Such is the sphere of influence that the nation has in business and in the arts, that whatever niche following is available, it gets consumed with relish but also admired for its intricate and absorbing nature. This is especially true when something from within the islands, come out with powerful, complex and a fascination of an art form perhaps more keenly associated with its Western acquaintances.

Vamps, Bloodsuckers. Album Review. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Inside View, Hollywood. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Who wouldn’t want all that glistens beneath the beckoning sign that sits in the Californian hills, the bright lights of a million stars and their sometimes inevitable fading careers, the welcoming handshake and the talking down of orders as one face fits and a thousand others fall by the way side. Hollywood has it all, the fame, the glamour and the dirt and it takes a special breed of person to want to try their luck there.

Inside View, Hollywood. Album Review. full post

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

James Patterson, Hope To Die. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

With hands held tightly in a sort of nervous anticipation for the next page to slowly crawl your way, finding that the last few chapters of what has been one long chase in Cross My Heart and its 2015 sequel Hope To Die, has left you feeling exasperated, slightly jaded, jarred and dejected, is enough to feel slightly cheated at what has otherwise been a great return to form for James Patterson and his erstwhile detective hero Alex Cross.

James Patterson, Hope To Die. Book Review. full post

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