The Great Train Robbery: The Robber’s Tale. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Luke Evans, Neil Maskell, Jack Roth, Bethany Muir, Martin Compston, Paul Anderson, Nicholas Murchie, Del Synott, Jack Gordon, Nigel Collins, Eliza Doolittle, Robert Glenister, Stuart Graham, Bill Thomas, Eric Hulme.

Those behind the 1988 film Buster should look upon The Great Train Robbery: The Robber’s Tale as a way to tell a story properly and without the large amount of buckets of whitewash in which to dip the carcass of post-war police work and the glamorisation of those involved in a crime that shook the very foundations of life in the U.K. already rocked by the scandal surrounding John Profumo and Christine Keeler.

The Great Train Robbery: The Robber’s Tale. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(447 words, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Omnibus Two, Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The great appeal of Buffy The Vampire Slayer was not the manner in which took on the darkness, the evil that surrounded her, the matter of the dead coming back to life and making Sunnydale a literal Hell on Earth, it was that this was a young woman with real problems, real issues that affected so many across the Western world and how she overcame them. If Joss Whedon’s heroine had been a lad, a boy slayer, it’s doubtful that the show would have been as successful, except to those whose interest in the Twilight series is more driven by rampaging hormones that plot lines.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Omnibus Two, Graphic Novel Review. full post

(467 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10

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

Before a word is spoken inside the Echo Arena, before Andrew Schofield and Alan Stocks pass that wonderful look between them and the marvellous Keddy Sutton manages to bring her array of much loved admired voices to the table, just to know that these six amazingly funny and versatile actors are about to bring Dave Kirby’s work to life, there is already a broad smile on the audience who braved the December storms to watch Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas.

Dreaming Of A Barry White Christmas, Theatre Review. Echo Arena, Liverpool. full post

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

Voices Of Angels, Songs For Christmas. Various Artists. Album Review.

For the second time this year, many people across Liverpool and beyond have thrown their weight behind something extraordinary in aid of the chosen charities for the Lord Mayor of Liverpool’s 2013-14 charity fundraiser.

Following on from the magnificent The Battle of The Atlantic C.D., the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Mr. Gary Millar, and a vast array of musicians and producers have bought out a Christmas album, which not only tugs at the heart strings wonderfully but also reproduces a real meaning of the season, not one of vast nameless companies making unfathomable profit in which to allegedly put into off shore accounts, but one of hope and feeling for everyone we come across.

Voices Of Angels, Songs For Christmas. Various Artists. Album Review. full post

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

Jimmy And The Revolvers, Sunday Morning. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To anyone had the misfortune not have been around when the sound of music from Liverpool dominated the charts and audiences every couldn’t get enough of the Merseybeat, the constant niggle of not seeing some of the legendary bands and musicians perform live, to having that tingle of excitement when the fledgling radio stations dare play a song by the ever increasingly popular music is something that you have to push down deep into the pit of your stomach and walk away before the evil and destructive nature of jealousy becomes too over whelming.

Jimmy And The Revolvers, Sunday Morning. E.P. Review. full post

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

Lucan, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

Cast: Rory Kinnear, Christopher Ecclestone, Paul Freeman, Michael Gambon, Catherine McCormack, Leanne Best, Gemma Jones, Alistair Petrie,  Lasco Atkins, Ann Bell, Tim Bentinck, Alexander Bracq, Helen Bradbury, James Bradshaw, Alan Cox, Benjamin Dilloway, Rupert Evans, Julian Firth, Michael Gould, Claudia Harrison, Leo Hart, Erick Hayden, Robert Horwell, Kevin Hudson, Jane Lapotaire, Olivia Llewllyn, Ruth McCabe.

The passage of time has never seemed to erase any interest or mawkish fascination in the case of Lord Lucan and his alleged crime of murder, in fact like Jack the Ripper nearly 90 years before him or Dr. Crippen, the more years pass, the stronger the interest seems to get, human nature becomes overwhelming in the search for the truth; even when that truth will certainly never be found.

Lucan, Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(499 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

On The Night Of Each Year.

on the night of each year

the miller would sit with

his quern-stone

 

hoary, and rolling on rynd,

it always names him the river;

quondam! river dust!

 

but, on this night, with the stone

in quiet repose; its aye,

its anything, every

 

for it can’t be tomorrow, when

water again must engage the burr,

and new, and past, returns

Andreas Dahl 2013

Permanent link to this post (67 words, estimated 16 secs reading time)

Iain Till, Oh, Sweetheart Of Mine. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There is always a time to de-clutter, to take away the excess, the pomp and circumstance and just go back to a stripped back version of everything, to listen to a set of songs that just play along with the idea of simplicity and high value.

Iain Till, Oh, Sweetheart Of Mine. E.P. Review. full post

(379 words, estimated 1:31 mins reading time)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Omnibus, Volume One. Graphic Novel Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

When Sarah Michelle Geller burst onto the television screens in 1997 as Buffy Summers, the reluctant Vampire Slayer who typified a growing confidence in women being given meaty roles, a whole generation of viewers were hooked. In the days before the genre seemed to become over saturated with young girls fighting off the attentions of vampires who wanted to kill them or romance them, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a breath of fresh air in a field that had become tired and almost mundane, so mundane that even comedy pastiches were as tired and anaemic as a Vampire at a N.H.S. transfusion run on the day when nobody is around to give a pint.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer Omnibus, Volume One. Graphic Novel Review. full post

(499 words, estimated 2:0 mins reading time)

They’re Coming To Get You Barbara, Dead Reckoning. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There is nothing better than being on board a powerful juggernaut or expensively made motorbike which is haring along the American interstate, the speed getting faster as each mile zips by till finally the only way to come to a grinding halt is to make sure you put everything into the brake, the deep gauging and burning impression left by the tires in the asphalt an indication of just how great the ride was. Listening to Liverpool’s They’re Coming To Get You Barbara’s set of new songs from the E.P. Dead Reckoning is like being on that motorbike but somehow much more enjoyable.

They’re Coming To Get You Barbara, Dead Reckoning. E.P. Review. full post

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