Galloway, Culbert and Doyle, Gig Review. Mello Mello, Liverpool.

Marianne Galloway, part of the folk band Galloway, Culbert and Doyle. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Liverpool’s much prized status as the most cultured city within the U.K. has been further enhanced in recent months by the emergence of a young traditional folk band with the guile and intelligence that marks them out as a very special breed of musicians.

Galloway, Culbert and Doyle are three University of Liverpool students who have brought to their adopted home a sense of pride in reviving the spirit of traditional English folk music and confirming that Liverpool is quite rightly the City of Culture in England.

Galloway, Culbert and Doyle, Gig Review. Mello Mello, Liverpool. full post

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

Great Expectations (2012). Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter, Holiday Grainger, Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane, Jason Flemyng, Toby Irvine, Ewan Brewner, Sally Hawkins, David Walliams, Tazmin Outhwaite, Daniel Weyman, Jessie Cave.

The trouble with classics is their over use of adaptation and counter adaption. It doesn’t feel like five minutes since the B.B.C. bought out their big budget Christmas special for 2011 to television audiences and now just in time for the festive season once more, the cinema goers are treated to another version of Charles Dickens’ excellent Great Expectations.

Great Expectations (2012). Film Review. full post

(462 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

A Goodbye To A Guild.

The media savvy, actors, the shy, musicians, the talkative, those with a political stance

The film buffs, creative souls burying their head into their coffee, D.J.s, idealistic, energetic and bold.

Those who take others by the hand, lead them past chairs and tables ready to dance

And those who just visit infrequently to shelter in winter from the Mersey cold.

The Guild square is home to the trials, tribulation, the laughter, tears and the dramas

The dramatic, the beat of a drum, the miscue, the charity drives and loud conversation,

A Goodbye To A Guild. full post

(182 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

Beneath The Beacon.

Beneath the beacon that sends ballistic signals out

In search of a home, or at least to reside for a moment

Before the dial turns with frustrated voice ready to shout

That the voices they hear are not those Heaven sent

Near the place where an audience waits

Inside and outside for the theatre of life

To show a production of 24 hours over 365 dates

Through laughter, anger, sorrow and strife

Where McGough’s words runs and pumps and splutters

Crowning the brave and the humour-led with

Beneath The Beacon. full post

(136 words, estimated 33 secs reading time)

James Paterson, Merry Christmas, Alex Cross. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * *

James Paterson’s almost near prestigious work involving the Psychiatrist turned Washington D.C. Detective Alex Cross have been as legendary as the amount of books that bear his name, either in the author’s own right or as part of his expanding output involving other writers. In the past books that involved Alex Cross have been near perfect as you wish for a modern day detective story, novels such as Pop Goes the Weasel, Roses are Red, Kiss the Girls and Double X have been a forthright look at the American crime solving.

James Paterson, Merry Christmas, Alex Cross. Book Review. full post

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

Norman Kelsey, On The Rebound. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

He is called the Clark Kent of Soul, however for those in the U.K. that haven’t had the pleasure of this young man’s work yet, it is perhaps easier to say he is perhaps the most exciting American Soul singer/musician since the days of the irreplaceable Marvin Gaye. Not so much a superhero but a wonderful talent that justifies being included alongside in the pantheon of Soul greats and his latest album the sensational On The Rebound keeps that label intact.

Norman Kelsey, On The Rebound. Album Review. full post

(341 words, 1 image, estimated 1:22 mins reading time)

Shadowlight,Twilight Canvas. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The latest release by Hertfordshire band Shadowlight, the superb sounding Twilight Canvas, carries on in the same excellent form that James Hodkinson and Mark Wilson showed in the exceptional E.P. Winter.

Where the band have improved, if that is indeed possible with Shadowlight, is the addition of extra personnel in the form of Ed Williamson-Brown and Paul Collins on bass and drums respectively, the album oozes a quality that rarely gets heard on a debut album but then the foundations of the band were sown long ago with the musical partnership of James and Mark. It is perhaps a shame for any new fan coming into the band on the back of the E.P. or this new album that there isn’t a catalogue to explore. However the sounds they create on this debut signals the start of something very extraordinary.

Shadowlight,Twilight Canvas. Album Review. full post

(354 words, 1 image, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

Dave O’ Grady, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Dave O’ Grady and Mersey Wylie at Leaf. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

If Dave O’ Grady was special before, then the added inclusion of the amazing talented vocals of Mersey Wylie adds another dimension to the man with a voice like velvet.

Dave O’ Grady, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(513 words, 1 image, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Robert Vincent, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool.

Robert Vincent at Leaf on Bold Street. Photograph by Ian D. Hall

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Even if you have been aware of an artist’s work for a while, there is something unimaginably superb at catching them live for the first time. With Robert Vincent opening up at Leaf before Dave O’ Grady, the audience realised very early into Robert’s set that they were in for a very enjoyable and exclusive, entertaining evening.

Robert Vincent, Gig Review. Leaf, Liverpool. full post

(395 words, 1 image, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Michael Jackson, Thriller. 30th Anniversary Retrospective.

From child music sensation to world mega star, Michael Jackson epitomises the idea of seeing a musical legend growing up before your eyes and until his untimely passing seeming to be a legend that was indestructible.

Thriller, thirty years down the line still holds onto the record of being the best-selling album of all time and whilst perhaps not being in the same vein as its predecessor Off The Wall, it can be seen as the album that changed Michael Jackson from a boy to a man. The songs on the album still retained the core elements and critical awareness that producer Quincy Jones established in his working arrangement with the former child star on Off The Wall but with one key ingredient thrown into the mix that took Michael away the boy of the 1970’s to the sophisticated and international entertainer that would wow audiences till his death. Namely the song in which the album took its name from, Thriller!

Michael Jackson, Thriller. 30th Anniversary Retrospective. full post

(945 words, 1 image, estimated 3:47 mins reading time)