Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Some poets you don’t see on stage in Liverpool from one year to the next. You know they exist by the volume of work they put out, but they somehow get tangled in the poetic mist that separates the city by the Mersey from the rest of the country as they criss-cross placing the truth of a rhythmical full stop in full reach of their fans, but not quite making all the way down to the birthplace of the Mersey Beat Poets.
As I watched the youthful sounding Yorkshire Poet
on stage in the furthest outpost that Lancashire once provided
but its self the gateway to boundless enthusiasm
and the cradle of civilisation in the wild, tempting lands,
I thought of you.
My stirred thoughts crammed with metaphor, with simile and symbolism,
the passion of friendship that flowed in the duck shaped earphones you
handed over with smiling mocking bow on my fortieth birthday
and the thank you that passes between us when needing
to crib from each other’s notes.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
After the fairly disappointing previous title in the collection of Bill Willingham’s otherwise entertaining Fables, the otherwise forgettable Arabian Nights (And Days), Wolves brings back one of the most interesting of characters to stride through the mythic streets and overwhelming wilderness, the previous Sheriff of Fable Town, Bigby Wolf.
The theme of solitude and repentance lives long in the minds of many fables as it does in the eyes of humanity. The long road to freedom, to shake of the chains of dishonour is a road that many don’t realise they have to take when dealing in a modern world. It is a tricky one to master but it must be taken with every step accounted for and it is one in which Bigby Wolf has endured.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
We have roads to travel upon; it’s how we explain the stories to those we meet along the way that is the key. One man’s pleasant trip down a leafy lane in the middle of spring with the sun at his back is another’s trudge through winter’s terminal grasp with nothing but the eyes of desperate and ravenous wolves reflecting the light of the dwindling fiery torch.
She exhaled her smooth silk smoke over me and I lost my way
in a fog, a haze of riches of electric touch upon
the one crumpled silk stocking she was wearing and I remained
there for several nights.
The distant sound of a saxophone beating against the lips of a master
as she asked me time and time again, whether sugar, was I alright?
I told her she was fine, it was me I worried about and the stinking sleepness
I felt as the bed heaved and swallowed and caught my breath and
MLivepool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Neil Dudgeon, Gwilym Lee, Fiona Dolman, Tamzin Malleson, Dean Andrews, Rakie Ayola, Lucie Jones, Claudie Blakley, Clarke Peters, Therese Bradley, Daniel Brocklebank, Chris Cartwright, Anthony Farrelly, Sean Gilder, Stephen Hagan, John W. G, Harley, Michael Haydon, , Richard Banks, Rosalind March, Stuart St. Paul, Ricky Raipal, Mick Slaney, Anick Wiget.
Death always needs a great theme tune. It is the signifier to a very good film or television detective series that an oncoming loss of life by nefarious means is accompanied by a memorable song or instrumental piece. If The Omen had a soundtrack, that say for example, was light and pithy would it have made young Damien seem more brutal or somehow as cuddly as a panda with an overbearing affection disorder?
Educatibg Rita at the Playhouse Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Stephen Vaughan.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Leanne Best, Con O’Neill.
The further we move away from a time in history, the more it seems to resonate with us in the present. In 1979 the social climate of the country changed, events and news from around the world started to mould Britain in a way not seen since the start of the Second World War and the pace of life altered, stagnation, alienation and guilt in some quarters, not enough in others, became a new breeding ground to hit people with a terrifying new stick with. Yet somehow, as if in rebellion to this flowering want, great music started to reflect the times once more and the mood of education was to be heard in many a great rock and pop song and into this world Willy Russell’s Educating Rita was born.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
When waiting for an album to come out by a band that you know deep down could have been the talk of the town and the greater music world in any of the decades since Liverpool gave birth to popular music culture in Britain, caution can seep in. It can mess with expectancy, it can gnaw at the promise you have made to yourself that it surely must be good because the gigs and the songs have suggested nothing but a wonderful sense of timing and delivery. Caution is good, it keeps both the listener and musicians grounded but it can also feed on you like a Succubus caught in the middle of a midday snack asking for extra bread rolls.
How much more entertaining
to slowly the strangle the sleepless Goose
that laid Golden Eggs, than to remove its head
from its neck and find the plump belly only contains
unspent grit and the remains of the previous day’s feed.
By placing an ever tighter grip with one hand
around the stout, formally resolute bird’s feathery neck,
and in the other
the sense of the caring fatherly figure protecting the Goose
from the ravenous wolf, forever telling the scared bird stories
of wolves and fox with mange in their fur and steel
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Lewis Bray.
Imagination is arguably the greatest gift bestowed upon humanity. It can lead us down many paths that were once closed off for whatever reason and it can be a shelter in any storm, a place in which to escape to when the world is against you, a place in which to explore and create.