Silent Sleep, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Raring * * * *

The New Year brings a fresh new gathering of top notch musicians to the forefront of live performing in Liverpool and in Leaf on Bold Street, the year got off to a marvellous start with the cracking sound of Silent Sleep.

Fronted by Chris McIntosh and with a cast of veritable thousands on stage, Silent Sleep made a dull January evening, not always the best time of year with the ensuing damp and bitter cold hitting the city, a night of fun and quiet musical contemplation which was enjoyable and nonetheless beautiful.

Silent Sleep, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

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

Ian McNabb, Head Like A Rock. 2013 Re-Mastered Edition.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It is unusual for a re-master of an album to add anything more to a listeners overall enjoyment than when they first purchased the original recording. It is extraordinary to feel more than moved by the new recording, so moved that the lyrics seem and get underneath the skin to the point where you question what you didn’t hear all those years ago. Ian McNabb’s re-mastering of his 1994 classic Head Like a Rock has such an effect and it is advisable to have someone there to hold onto when listening to this incredibly personal and touching recording.

Ian McNabb, Head Like A Rock. 2013 Re-Mastered Edition. full post

(394 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Helloween, Straight Out Of Hell. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

From first crashing note to last thunderous moment, Helloween’s latest album, Straight Out Of Hell, is a reminder of the band’s early glory days of Germanic story telling that rivalled the Brothers Grimm in its ability to take a simple idea and give it such intensity and such power that the only clear rivals the metal group were either in the U.K. or in America.

Helloween, Straight Out Of Hell. Album Review. full post

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

The Pied Piper Of Liverpool, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alan Bower, Alun Parry, Geraldine Moloney-Judge, Mike Leane, Kate Mulvihill, Richard MacDonald, Mikyla Durkan, Sarah Tryer, Adam Byrne, Laura Foulkes.

The Casa might not be the first place that audiences think of plays as being performed in the Hope Street area of the city. However away from the Unity Theatre down the road and the looming cultural giant that is the new look Everyman Theatre, The Casa offers the chance for local productions to shine with actors who may be making their first tempting steps into the profession.  This was no less the case in the entertaining and thought provoking Julian Bond and Burjesta Theatre’s play, The Pied Piper Of Liverpool.

The Pied Piper Of Liverpool, Theatre Review. The Casa, Liverpool. full post

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

Lewis, The Ramblin’ Boy. Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Kevin Whately, Clare Holman, Laurence Fox, Peter Davison, Rebecca Front, Babou Ceesay, Tom Brooke, Simon Wilson, Mark Powley, Lia Williams, Lucy Speed, Camilla Power, Harriet Ballard, Taron Egerton, Nicholas McGauhey.

The second of the new series of Lewis sees the more human side, a nod to the domestic that forever eluded the Inspector’s old boss Morse in an episode where the deduction of just exactly who was killed caused more of a problem than finding the murderer. With Hathaway enjoying his first holiday away from the treacherous and murder filled streets of Oxford, the position was effectively vacant for a new side-kick to help Lewis solve the case.

Lewis, The Ramblin’ Boy. Television Review. I.T.V. full post

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

Victoria’s Children, Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The Victorian age is something that gets a lot of attention when studying History as a subject. As a Monarch, Victoria ruled over a quarter of the globe at the beginning of the British Empire and commanded respect from Prime Ministers, the public and indeed her husband Prince Albert at all times.

However, there was a part of her life that didn’t seem to be in control, her relationship with her children, especially after the death of her Consort, which was fractious at best and as her children got older the more it seems they couldn’t wait to rebel against her and carve out lives for themselves. Such was the intriguing premise behind the B.B.C.’s three part series Victoria’s Children.

Victoria’s Children, Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(428 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

The Music Hall.

He stands smiling infront of the eager audience

That had actually paid to see him perform

His mimicry, his jokes and the classic risqué songs.

He could have sold out for weeks as his talent at the time was unsurpassed

Holding them spellbound as each well-worked line was cast.

 

His battered bowler hat, tipped towards the ladies on purpose

And slightly covering the blood shot eye (but not the saucy grin)

That had appeared after a drunken night

In which he had forgotten the punch line

The Music Hall. full post

(217 words, estimated 52 secs reading time)

Ripper Street, The Weight Of One Man’s Heart. Television Review. B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Jerome Flynn, Adam Rothenberg, MyAnna Buring, Iain Glen, Sam Hazeldine, Michael James Ford, Laura Hitchings, Charlene McKenna, David Wilmot, Jonathan Barnwell, Liam Carney.

 

When loyalties are tested between past glories and those that present and future hold where does a person go. This is the premise of the latest in the excellently made Ripper Street series, The Weight Of One Man’s Heart.

Ripper Street, The Weight Of One Man’s Heart. Television Review. B.B.C. Television. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

A Meeting Of Friends With Poetry In Mind.

Two English men abroad, eccentric country, drunk and elegiac

Appear and feel out of place as they sit drinking whisky

In a hotel bar with little ambience and a little hostility, with their hosts drinking nothing

More than copious amounts of coffee and curious looking tea.

 

The two written off poets watch with a grin as the waiters and bar tenders

All dressed in company suits and corresponding company smiles

As they reposition back and forth and taking orders to the timing of low piano keys

Like Liberace, so loud in an elegant casual style.

A Meeting Of Friends With Poetry In Mind. full post

(281 words, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

A Butterfly Uncaged.

Jennifer missed her old life so much, that she decided

To go back home just once more.

She felt the twin emotions of clamour of excitement and regret flutter up

Like a trapped butterfly released from a keeper’s net

To enjoy the remains of a beautiful summer’s day.

 

She had stayed away, too frightened and too ashamed

Of her mistake, so small yet so blown up

Out of proportion that she was made to feel

Disgraced and bitter for a system that

Had let her be run out of town.

A Butterfly Uncaged. full post

(199 words, estimated 48 secs reading time)