A Forest Of Stars, A Shadowplay for Yesterdays. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Perhaps not since the early days of the British band Sabbat, has an album left such an indelible mark on the conscious of the fan of the genre such as the 2012 release of A Shadowplay for Yesterdays by the quite sublime A Forest Of Stars.

The unnerving heartbeat, slow, methodical and direct, is at times more frightening than the racing pulse of a heart out of control. It doesn’t just signify a calmness of spirit, it can also be a measure of manipulation, of a domination of mind over emotion and in that the quietness of breathing in the dark can induce a clammy sensation on the skin to rise and the hackles ready to sharpen at what might come next.

A Forest Of Stars, A Shadowplay for Yesterdays. Album Review. full post

(433 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Deacon Blue, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2014).

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Deacon Blue performing at the Echo Arena, December 2014. Photograph courtesy of David Munn Photography.

Deacon Blue performing at the Echo Arena, December 2014. Photograph courtesy of David Munn Photography.

From here on the days start to get longer, the country may just be staring into abyss that is the cold and potentially snow bound days of winter but at least there is light starting to creep back into the 24 hour clock as the balance of Time tips slowly back in favour of being able to be out of the house.  However, the shortest day of the year affords the party to have a long hurrah, to slip comfortably into the clothes that make a person feel better and to enjoy one of the most popular acts that comes to Liverpool and its Echo Arena, the phenomenal Deacon Blue.

Deacon Blue, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. (2014). full post

(573 words, 2 images, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Zervas And Pepper, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

To experience something new is one of the great pleasures of life. It gets the brain going, it tingles the imagination and sets a blazing path under your feet to try and find out more. Thankfully in the 21st Century, you can make a beeline for the internet when the evening’s performance is over; visit a band’s home page and then several really handy and badly taken concert footage reels which litter the web should the desire take you, all in the name of just finding out that little bit more about the fresh new sound your ears have been exposed to.

Zervas And Pepper, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(459 words, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)

Justin Currie, Lower Reaches. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is a delicate nature that resides in even the stoniest of men. It might take the famed Heracles to make an additional scrawl on his list of labours in which to prise it out, but it will be found eventually.

One such person who has no need for Heracles or his famed strength is Del Amitri’s Justin Currie. The heart is not just on his sleeve, it seems to encompass everything he does and whether live on stage or recording music in the studio for his fans, the sleeve, the arm and the shirt are one big emotional scratching post for his haunting and very beautiful lyrics. Perhaps this has never been more true, certainly as a solo artist, than in his latest album release, Lower Reaches.

Justin Currie, Lower Reaches. Album Review. full post

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

Erica Nockalls, EN2. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Falling in love is easy, there are far too many sonnets and composed teenage angst written poems to suggest anything but. However staying in love, finding new ways in which the artists endearing affection and sheer honesty grapples with the heart and the mind in some sort of tantric wrestling match is a harder proposition for many in a disposable world to understand. However for Erica Nockalls, the maestro of the violin and arguably one of the finest players in Britain today, wrestling with the listener’s thoughts and musical desires is not on the agenda, not physically anyway, and in her second solo album EN2 the person cowering under the weight of uncertain times ahead is relieved by the undulating swell of string and bow and angry but beautifully paced and sincerely thought anger.

Erica Nockalls, EN2. Album Review. full post

(452 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Babylon, Series One. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Brit Marling, James Nesbitt, Bertie Carvel, Paterson Joseph, Ella Smith, Jonny Sweet, Nicola Walker, Cavan Clerkin, Jill Halfpenny, Adam Deacon, Nick Blood, Stuart Martin, Andrew Brooke.

There are times when the continuous stick against the back of the collective head is not enough, sometimes it takes cleverly written satire and drama with very well hidden comic undertones to get the message across that in 21st Century Britain, the apparent message is all consuming and powerful. The message is as loud and perhaps as obnoxious as its counterpart and sometimes occasional lover, the economy. If listened too very carefully, the two words can be interpreted as one and the same and the mantra gets repeated over an d over again like a man finding out that raw onions is bad for his digestive system but carries on believing that they are doing him good just because it helps expel wind.

Babylon, Series One. Television Review. full post

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

The Fall, Series Two. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Gillian Anderson, Jamie Dornan, John Lynch, Bronagh Waugh, Niamh McGrady, Sarah Beattie, Aisling Franciosi, Emmett J Scanlan, Archie Panjabi, Stuart Graham, Gerard Jordan, Bronagh Taggart, Valene Kane, Richard Clements, Jonjo O’Neill, Kelly Gough, Orla Mullan, Colin Morgan, Ruairí Tohill.

The Fall of humanity is a precarious downward path and it can start with a single dominant voice whispering in the dark, it soft murmuring causing a fuse to blow somewhere and in which starts the domino like destruction wrought on society is one that should be investigated more and evidence found in which to support the afflicted in the future. What happens before then though can be seen a terrorizing game between two people and in The Fall that game is played out with the severest of consequences.

The Fall, Series Two. Television Review. full post

(583 words, estimated 2:20 mins reading time)

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. The Auditorium, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Andrew Schofield, Alan Stocks, Paul Duckworth, Keddy Sutton, Gillian Hardie, Lenny Wood.

A different setting, a changed venue, can make all the difference between wildly incredible and drop dead tremendous.

For the second year running the area around the Echo Arena played host to Dave Kirby’s sensational and uproarious Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas and yet just to take it out of the main arena in which the echo of Christmas Day’s Past Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and Peter Gabriel songs were still bouncing off the walls and in which Deacon Blue’s soulful pop was still to grace, the Auditorium became a more natural staging in which to completely immerse one’s self into the world of Thomas Minge and his collection of oddities and workers with the most wonderful but very peculiar habits.

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. The Auditorium, Liverpool. full post

(578 words, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

The Wonder Stuff (Acoustic), Gig Review. 02 Academy, Birmingham.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Time is a tremendous healer; it can also be a jailer. It can tie you down and deliver a quick, unexpected slap and shock the system to the point where unless you are willing to change the way you present yourself every now and then, or at least the fundamental part that everyone sees on a daily basis, then Time is quick to stagnate and be repulsed.

The Wonder Stuff (Acoustic), Gig Review. 02 Academy, Birmingham. full post

(588 words, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)