Neal John Oade, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is folk music, then there is the granddaddy of the genre, the music that the immensity of the last 50 years owes as much a debt to the past as we, as listeners, owe the struggles and bravery of musicians such as Woody Guthrie, Ewan MacColl and Hamish Imlach. That granddaddy, the songs of the people in centuries past survive because they have a resonating truth that haunts every generation and stings them into some sort of resistance. The resistance might not take hold or be very strong but they at least leave a tangible fingerprint in which to remind that injustice should not stand.

Neal John Oade, Gig Review. Studio 2, Parr Street, Liverpool. full post

(537 words, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Kingsman: The Secret Service, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Taron Egerton, Mark Hamill, Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sophia Boutella, Jack Davenport, Samantha Womack, Sophie Cookson, Tom Prior, Alisha Heng, Corey Johnson, Hanna Alstrom, Edward Holcroft, Geoff Bell, Lily Travers.

Kingsman: The Secret Service, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool. full post

(560 words, estimated 2:14 mins reading time)

Dead Air

It was only by chance

that in my decreasing state of awareness,

of Morpheus’ gradual tightening grip on the synapses

brain

and the closing down of reason and rational expectation,

that I forgot to switch off the phone

that led to call of desperation being heard.

In the darkness of the winter night,

the shrill of Bell’s worst nightmare

woke me from the deepening fugue and of wrestling dreams

and hazily I crawled,

groped and moaned aloud in ever increasing

volumes

Dead Air full post

(203 words, estimated 49 secs reading time)

Kaiser Chiefs, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2015).

Kaiser Chiefs, Echo Arena, Liverpool. January 2015. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Not so much as offering a riot or an explosion of epic proportions, what first nights really do after all but The Kaiser Chiefs kicked off their latest tour with some style, much swagger and ultimately thunderous applause from an Echo Arena crowd that had seemingly waited far too long for the band to return to Liverpool.

Kaiser Chiefs, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2015). full post

(680 words, 1 image, estimated 2:43 mins reading time)

That’s Amore, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Adam Davies, Eleni Edipidi, Jennifer Essex, Ross McCall, Caroline Ryder (voice)

Love is a many splendid thing – it can make the soul rise higher than thought imaginable, it can bring a person down to their knees as the situation of their plight becomes untenable. It can fill the heart with infatuation to the point where boundaries are cross, it can shelter and care for another with absolute clarity. Love takes all that you have and leaves you cold and distant, it makes the world seem a brighter and more approachable place, whatever the outcome, no matter who cupid’s arrow’s decided to strike within, whoever you fall in love with, nobody understands the turmoil and feeling of power you feel at that moment, That’s Amore after all.

That’s Amore, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(436 words, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

The Shortness Of February’s Rage.

You are cold to the touch oh moody one.

You offer so much potential but in your sullen distance

You sometimes forget that you are here to have fun

and a different face to your sister’s bleak resistance.

Like some petulant teenager rebelling against its parents scorn

you rage and blind, leaving a northern blanket of unfathomable white,

screaming to anyone who listens that you wish you’d not been born

and cursing them for their folly as they gaze upon you with hopeful sight.

The Shortness Of February’s Rage. full post

(153 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Doctor Who: Philip Hinchcliffe Presents… The Ghosts of Gralstead. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Carolyn Seymour, Gethin Anthony, Martin Hutson, Emerald O’ Hanrahan, Alan Cox, Ivanno Jeremiah, Andy Secombe, Sean Carlsen, Andrew French, Mandi Symonds.

The fourth Doctor was arguably never better than when thrust into the tale of the Gothic persuasion. It was a running theme throughout his tenure in the shoes of the Timelord that the Gothic, in one shape or another would feature heavily and the macabre would be accompanying with relish.

Doctor Who: Philip Hinchcliffe Presents… The Ghosts of Gralstead. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Natalie McCool, Pins. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Unlike an album which always gave the impression of being an event that was tantalisingly months out of reach, the single seemed to come around with near frightening regularity.

There was a heyday, an apparently glorious period of time which the single was lauded as the high point of the week for many, the chance to go out on a Monday morning, perhaps be late for the first part of school, but knowing the language that spoke from within the seven inch vinyl were engrained much more in your head than the imagined words of fools.

Natalie McCool, Pins. Single Review. full post

(411 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Paul Dunbar Of The Midnight Ramble.

The Unity Theatre in Liverpool has long been a home for the adventurous and the glorious. It has been and will hopefully always be the place in which the avant-garde shakes hands with the rebellious and in which the seditious, defiant revolutions can start.

These revolutions may be small, they may be missed by the greater good and the world in general but they take place none the less and alongside the plays and productions that take place within its two theatre spaces and even a nod to Kerouac having been filmed within its walls, it is music that carries the revolution nod gently along.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement. An Interview With Paul Dunbar Of The Midnight Ramble. full post

(1622 words, estimated 6:29 mins reading time)

Inherent Vice, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Joanna Newsom, Katherine Waterston, Josh Brolin, Reece Witherspoon, Jordan Christian Hearn, Taylor Bonin, Jeannie Berlin, Eric Roberts, Serena Scott Thomas, Maya Rudolph, Martin Dew, Michael Kenneth Williams, Hong Chau, Shannon Collis, Benicio Del Toro, Owen Wilson, Martin Short, Sasha Pieterse.

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

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