Luke Cusato, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Rarely do you go out to see a musician on stage for the first time and come away feeling as though you have seen the blossoming stages of hybridisation of elegant poetry and the subtleness of keyboards notes wafting through the air as if caught on the wings of a Red Admiral in full flight. However for anybody in the Zanzibar Club in Liverpool ahead of a long steamy night, that is exactly what they would have felt stirring as they watched Luke Cusato perform.

Luke Cusato, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

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

Run Tiger Run, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 71/2/10

With a world that has so much going on a daily basis, sometimes an act may get overlooked. The fast pace of modern life ensuring that art mournfully suffers as the call on someone’s time eats into what would be a pleasurable experience. Either that or the prevalence to sit in an overcrowded bar with piped music assaulting the ears in much the same way waking up in amongst a flock of hungry seagulls at four in the morning would be inexcusably painful really is how people like to spend their spare time. Either way, to have missed Run Tiger Run give a commanding performance at the Zanzibar Club was one that should eat into the musical soul labelled regret.

Run Tiger Run, Gig Review. Zanzibar Club, Liverpool. full post

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

Hillsborough.

In the hat, last four teams.

Hands rub, for successful dreams.

Reds meet Forest, Norwich see Blue.

And will Mersey fill Wembley? True!

 

Reds against YELLOWs went to play.

On a gorgeous April day.

Semi finalist in the cup.

And winners champers, to sup.

 

Two armies took over the town.

Spirits raised high, for the crown!

Flags amongst banners in the ground.

And smiles with laughs were compound.

 

The swarm of red inside.

Who wore the Merseyside pride.

Like animals, they were penned.

Hillsborough. full post

(262 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Last Of The Colophon. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 71/2/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Gareth Thomas, Jane Goddard, John Voce, Jessica Martin, Blake Ritson.

The last of any species is one that surely deserves to be preserved for as long as possible, especially when they are the cause of the extinction of their entire race.

The Doctor and Leela arrive on the planet Colophos, a dead, seemingly barren world which is just dust and sand. The chance to relax is offered but there is something deadly lurking in the background and the Doctor and Leela, along with the crew of the survey ship The Oligarch have to fight for their lives against an enemy who revels in being unseen.

Doctor Who: Last Of The Colophon. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(472 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Chris Bevington And Friends. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Blues seems to bring out the very best in musicians, it also seems to the one genre in which many a talented artist seems comfortable in letting themselves go and placing themselves in the multitude of songs from its illustrious past. Jazz constantly re-invents itself, Progressive Rock is so utterly unique, Heavy Metal only really covered by the completely dedicated and pop, at times seems to let anything go, Blues however appeals in its homage to the past.

Chris Bevington And Friends. Album Review. full post

(373 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Carousel, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Julie Evans, Phil Birss, Franki Burke, Camille Machin, Jamie Barfield, Jak Malone, Ruth Dalton, Charlotte Dawson, Sarah Hale, Rosemary Barfield, Trev Fleming, Ady Thompson, James Hill, Andy Godden, Carrie Cushman, Edward Feery, Andrew Abrahamson, Clare Fozard, Andy Walker, Tom Lox, Lorna Foley, Eugene Chong Hon Zhen, Sara Barnes, Jayne Strahan, Ellie Gray, Steph Minshall, Zoe Thirsk, Danielle Fernando.

There are times, not often, but on the wonderfully rare occasion, where you think you know how a play or a musical can play out because it is of the immense stature that surrounds its very core that it can only be played out in a particular, perhaps reliable fashion.

Carousel, Theatre Review. Unity Theatre, Liverpool. full post

(613 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Jack Taylor, Shot Down. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Iain Glen, Hazel Doupe, Michael Collins, Nora-Jane Noone, David O’Meara, Killian Scott, Garrett Keogh, Barbara Bergin, Martin Ward, Karl Shiels, Emmet Kirwin, Eamonn Hunt, Stephen Cromwell, Mark Butler, Ruth Magill, Rúaidhrí Conroy.  

 

Running away is easy, especially when the alternative is facing up to those that have taken a bullet for you and watch them sink further into a coma. Such is the life of ex-Garda turned Private Detective Jack Taylor, but even he could not have foreseen the life he would find in perhaps the final ever case of the fine Irish thriller, Shot Down.

Jack Taylor, Shot Down. Television Review. full post

(524 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

Justice League, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

All it takes is one person to turn everything you thought you understood about the world of comic art and graphic novels upside down, shake the stupidity of pre-conception out of your head and spank you with your rolled up, tattered copy of reasons why company is better than the other.

Justice League, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(673 words, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)

Terrific Tuesday.

 

A time to talk.

A time to tell.

A time to think.

And, a time to dwell.

 

A time to learn.

A time to listen.

A time to laugh.

And, a time to glisten!

 

A time to sight.

A time to seek.

A time to stay.

And, a time to keep!

 

John C Heldt 2014

Permanent link to this post (61 words, estimated 15 secs reading time)

Eagles, Gig Review. History Of The Eagles. Hydro Arena, Glasgow.

Liverpool Sound and Vision rating 9/10

You can wait years for an Eagles tour to come round; however no matter what, it is something that at least once in your life you need to be able to say you did. There would be no regrets, no thought of feeling as if the motions were being underplayed, what you get is one of the most entertaining, thoughtful and considered nights out you are likely to witness.  The quality of Don Henley and Glen Frey’s song-writing, the amazing spectacle of Joe Walsh, arguably one of the true greats of American Rock, the appearance of Bernie Leadon causing a ripple of welcoming gasps throughout  the auditorium and the perfect voice of Timothy B. Schmit all rolled up in to a perfect wrecking ball of a band.

Eagles, Gig Review. History Of The Eagles. Hydro Arena, Glasgow. full post

(542 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)