The Morgue Table, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating: * *

Cast: Mark Jones, John Bradurn, Des Flanagan, Russell Parry, Wendy Jones, Ashleigh Roberts, Tania Power, Wayne Lester, Jade Oxby, Anthony Russell, Liam Lloyd, Franny Conlin, Josie Parkes, Peter Highton, Dominic Pitt.

In Walton prison, inmates Tony and Ike have been summoned to see the Governor Mr. Grime who has a proposition that neither can refuse. The only problem is it involves going down to the haunted tunnels to the morgue to destroy the old morgue table. However, Tony and Ike have heard the stories about the morgue table being haunted and are a little hesitant to comply, but a reduced sentence is at stake.

The Morgue Table, Theatre Review. Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(385 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

The White Widows, Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

To sneak a peek at an artist’s interior, be it in a Freudian or Jungian manner, or just simply to take an interest in the way they present themselves between the notes of joy, despondency, truth, unconscious anarchy and ultimate rebellion that surround the lyrics, is one in which all art should be considered for at least a while.

The White Widows, Album Review. full post

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

The First…

You were the first of a select few

many times

and have remained so

both our lives.

From being my first friend, my beautiful comrade in arms,

the first who was the better part of me and

the shoulder for my head, your unwilling soldier sending

the S.O.S. out to be rescued, to the girl I asked first and who

quite rightly

turned me down. The woman with the fire in her hair

and in her stomach, the guts of a warrior, the compassionate heart of a nurse.

The First… full post

(347 words, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

Our World War: Pals, Television Review. B.B.C.

Cast: Luke Tittenson, Stuart Graham, Lewis Reeves, Michael Socha, Chris Mason, Hannah Britland, Paul Popplewell, Bobby Schofield, Sandy Batchelor, Anthony Schuster, Michael Peavoy, Andrew MacBean, Laurie Kynaston.

The second part of the B.B.C. series Our World War was one in which looked at the way the Battle of the Somme had an effect on the soldiers who fought in that bloody, unforgiving and devastating fight, especially two soldiers whose lives would become intertwined over the coming days of the offensive, Private Paddy Kennedy and Private William Hunt.

Our World War: Pals, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(562 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)

Bad Pollyanna, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Studio 2 has held many a night where the audience has been gripped by the performance; it has hosted Steve Macfarlane’s outstanding Sunday afternoon slots in which the occasion is always something to look forward to. It has seen the likes of Twisted Trees, the brilliant Little Sparrow, Matt Breen and Susie Jones perform on its stage and even had the legendary Brian Nash, John Gorman, Liverpool wordsmith Peter Grant and a whole host of poets and musicians give their all within the room. It even hosted the likes of Marillion and once upon a time as they recorded one of their many albums there and yet the ambient room has surely never hosted a band like Bad Pollyanna before.

Bad Pollyanna, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(491 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Diamond Days, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Life is not quite a race against time, the hours will go past at their usual speed and the clock will recognise every hour with its usual exuberance and maddening, almost happy like sophistication. It is the time you cannot see, the tick between tock that you have to use wisely and gain the spirit and wherewithal to make a difference to life and to the quality of your performance.

Diamond Days, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(553 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Black Diamond, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There can be nothing more that can make you suffer as if your ex-partner has run away with the one you left them for, or make you feel so elated in the same breath as if they had left behind their credit cards and a hastily scribbled note with their pin number on than feeling the dichotomy of watching a young band give such a performance and be so well appreciated that you cannot help but feel somehow you have wasted your life.

Black Diamond, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

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

They’re Coming To Get You Barbara, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A runaway train hurtling along the track, its metal shell gleaming in the radiant sunlight and with the band members from Metallica flying above in a stolen helicopter but somehow managing to play their greatest hits as in homage to the train’s pursuit has more chance of developing a sluggish demeanour than you could ever slow down They’re Coming To Get You Barbara once they have warmed up. Not that the band need much time but it gives the train a deluded self- confidence that nothing can match that type of speeding Metal.

They’re Coming To Get You Barbara, Gig Review. Studio 2, Liverpool. full post

(516 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Buckle Tongue, A King In All Of Us. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are groups, sets of musicians that are captured so well on stage, their huge sound overwhelming and intense that when they finally bring together their growing catalogue of songs to an E.P. or album it can on the whole seem slightly muted, the voice, the growl and the thrill of the vocal chase, surrendered for the smoothness offered in the vacuum of sterility.

Buckle Tongue, A King In All Of Us. E.P. Review. full post

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

Utopia: Series Two, Episode Six. Television Review. Channel 4.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Fiona O’ Shaughnessy, Neil Maskell, Adel Akhtar, Paul Higgins, Alexandra Roach, Nathan Stewart-Jarratt, Oliver Woollford, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Ian McDiarmid, Paul Ready, Ruth Gemmel, Emilia Jones, Steven Robertson, Sacha Dhawan, Jennifer Hennersey, Emil Hostina, David Calder, Ansu Kabin, Bill Nash, John Voce.

It might take Channel 4 a decade or more to get involved with another story-line as riveting as Utopia has been for the last two series, if it does it will be well worth the wait, for Utopia has been so powerful, so seismic in its delivery that it stands shoulder to shoulder with other titans that went before it, such as Black Mirror and A Very British Coup. .

Utopia: Series Two, Episode Six. Television Review. Channel 4. full post

(478 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)