Marvel Comics: Civil War. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

What would you do if you had a super power so great that you were able to help many thousands of people survive the everyday viciousness, cruelty and the malevolent? To be able to walk the streets in safety with no fear attached to their daily routine knowing that there was a hero out there looking out for them. This power is so great though that it frightens others and forces you to come clean, to reveal who you are and there by jeopardising your own safety as the criminals and the ones with evil intent come after you and those that you love. Would you, could you, sign up to act that required you to disclose your true identity?

Marvel Comics: Civil War. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(767 words, estimated 3:04 mins reading time)

Morton Harket, Brother. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Perhaps male pop heart throbs are hard to find. The teenage crush of many a young girl can disappear in the blink of an eye, they dissolve into the background and what was once fashionable and alluring is unrecognisable, both visually and aurally, in the years ahead. Such is the life of a teenage heart throb.

Following on from Out of My Hands, Morton Harket shows with his latest album Brother, that some 80s pop stars have and will fare better than many of the almost non-descript popular male acts and so called Boy-bands of the current generation will be able to claim.

Morton Harket, Brother. Album Review. full post

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

Shetland: Blue Lightning. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Douglas Henshall, Alison O’ Donnell, Bill Paterson, Anthony Howell, David Annen, Erin Armstrong, Leigh Biagi, David Ireland, John Lynch, Lorne MacFadyen, Michael Nardone, Stewart Porter, Keith Ramsey, Steven Robertson, Annie Louise Ross, Paksie Vernon, Susan Vidler.

The question hanging on the lips of the residents of Fair Isle was just how long can it take to find a killer on an island? It all boils down to a matter of scale for D.I. Jimmy Perez as he is bought back to his home island to find the murderer of noted scientist Anna Blake and the confrontation of ghosts from his past that may have been better left to haunt the lonely isles alone.

Shetland: Blue Lightning. Television Review. full post

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

Angela Douglas, Swings And Roundabouts. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Angela Douglas is one of Britain’s much loved actors. Married to one of British cinema’s legendary performers, she made a mark in both theatre and films, notably perhaps the four Carry On Films she appeared in as the romantic female lead, Carry On Sreaming, Cowboy, Follow That Camel, On Up The Khyber and in films such as The Comedy Man and The Gentle Terror. Her life is one that unfortunately seen under the gaze of a British public that was under such moral sexual introspection, a hangover from the so called Victorian values that dominated society until the 1970s and the perhaps phony tides in which people judged other lives.

Angela Douglas, Swings And Roundabouts. Book Review. full post

(650 words, estimated 2:36 mins reading time)

The Basin Street Brawlers, It’s Tight Like That. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Jazz and swing can so easily mocked by some but at times providing the link between good music and an enjoyable time. It cannot be a coincidence that the increase in popularity over the last few years is more akin to the times we find ourselves in, the untold parallels that don’t get talked about in the hushed rooms of Westminster to those that afflicted Europe in the 1920s and 30s. Between Jazz and Blues the music certainly kept up the spirits of many of those under fire during that time and now The Basin Street Brawlers are putting up an excellent fight to keep the music flowing in the 21^st Century with their new album, It’s Tight Like That.

The Basin Street Brawlers, It’s Tight Like That. Album Review. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Ian Anderson, Homo Erraticus. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Jethro Tull or Ian Anderson? To be fair it makes no difference what name the man who bought Gerald Bostock into the world and gave prominence to the flute being front and centre of the stage of any gig or album. He could call himself after any inventor of 17^th Century or 21^st Century gardening implement or seed drill as long as he continues to make outstanding albums such as Homo Erraticus and given the man’s unerring and unwavering contribution to British music in the last 45 years, that doesn’t seem to be an issue that will ever come up in polite conversation.

Ian Anderson, Homo Erraticus. Album Review. full post

(551 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Endeavour: Sway. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Anton Lesser, Jack Laskey, Sean Rigby, James Bradshaw, Joe Bannister, Jack Bannon, Gina Bramhill, Rob Compton, James Doherty, Rob Jarvis, Brian Lipson, Shvorne Marks, Tim McMullan, Caroline O’Neill, Cécile Paoli, Adrian Schiller, Michael Thomas, Sara Vickers, Matthew Wilson, Max Wrottesley.

Morse may have been living life a bit more inside the box in recent months but as he relaxes more into a life with purpose after being shot in the last series, Oxford has a serial killer on the loose, one who is acting out of fanatical zeal and the foggy streets of the University city have become a dangerous place for women.

Endeavour: Sway. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

Elbow, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Elbow in Liverpool 2014. Photograph by Mr. Darren Moore.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

For many inside the Liverpool Echo Arena it may well have been the first opportunity to see Elbow in such a setting. The enormous roofed space in which has held so many great concerts since it first opened its doors to the public in 2008 now reverberated and swayed to the atmospheric delights employed by Elbow.

Elbow, Gig Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

(634 words, 1 image, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

The Vibes, Dust Trail. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is always a small part of you that worries that the second E.P. or album you hear performed by a band might see the glimmer of undisguised joy you felt first time round, die a little, become somehow tarnished and smeared with the dirty pain of blotted memories. It is a natural thought. Even when a band has been going many years that nagging doubt remains and in even in masters of the music experience such as Pink Floyd there is an argument for saying A Momentary Lapse of Reason falls into that category. For Liverpool band The Vibes, a couple of E.P.s down the line and they still sound bloody marvellous. Dust Trail proves that you perhaps shouldn’t give much thinking room for second E.P. nerves!

The Vibes, Dust Trail. E.P. Review. full post

(443 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

The Fresh Dixie Project, Dress Pretty, Dance Ugly. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

“If it ain’t got that swing then it don’t mean a thing…” If it’s not The Fresh Dixie Project, then whatever it could be is an obvious pale imitation of something so right that deep down you know you could be headed for booking up confession sessions a few months in advance. Failing that you will be listening to five young lads give such an imaginative display on the scale of seeing an exhibition of a man swagger and swerve temptation as he strides along Oxford Street with a thousand pounds in his pocket and defying expectation, passes into the hands of a local homeless woman.

The Fresh Dixie Project, Dress Pretty, Dance Ugly. E.P. Review. full post

(390 words, estimated 1:34 mins reading time)