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Doctor Who: Stranded – 1. Big Finish Audio Drama Boxset Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Hattie Morahan, Rebecca Root, Tom Price, Tom Baker, Aurora Burghart, Jeremy Clyde, Alan Cox, Joel James Davison, Raj Ghatak, Robert Portal, David Shaw-Parker, Clive Wood, Amina Zia.

You may love somewhere and proudly call it a home from home, a favourite place to be, an affinity with the locals, a connection with its history; but if you find that you have become Stranded, marooned upon its beaches because your mode of transport has given up the ghost and no sign of rescue is forthcoming; then your paradise, that one place you like to visit and catch up with its inhabitants can suddenly turn into a world of dull routine, your visit now a land of disagreeable anecdotes as you understand the point of view by those always trapped in the grey where once you saw colour.

Doctor Who: Stranded – 1. Big Finish Audio Drama Boxset Review. full post

(521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Nicki Adams and Michael Eaton: The Transcendental. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The world of Jazz has arguably never been more accessible and in rude health. Indeed, when compared to other forms of music it is one that whilst adopted by those who loved the anonymity provided by the venues and the once smoky atmosphere, has been recognised as offering the listener something new and novel each time they hear an artist perform a section of music that crosses the boundary between the human and the sense of spiritual excess challenges.

Nicki Adams and Michael Eaton: The Transcendental. Album Review. full post

(370 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Bruce Dickinson: The Mandrake Project. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

On the back of greatness, we often find ourselves wondering how we can achieve an even larger, more vast declaration of intent.

Close to two full decades since Bruce Dickinson found his way into the recording studio without any back up from the Iron Maiden family, The Mandrake Project is that album of glorious purpose after a run of seismic recordings from Eddie’s boys that returned them rightfully to the top ten charts, and in doing so scored their first number one in the U.K. since the release of the scintillating Fear Of The Dark. 

Bruce Dickinson: The Mandrake Project. Album Review. full post

(424 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Pete Wylie: The Mighty Wah! : Teach Yourself Wah!- A Best Of. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Living legends are a hard commodity to explain, even more so in the explosion of talent that has come our way since the internet and its billions of users found ways to extoll the presence of anyone who can light up a screen with their various degrees of talent; the proof if ever needed that we can all be amazing, we can all be something extraordinary, it just takes one more ingredient, a quality of enigma that must shine brighter, must be so overwhelming, that it catches a moment in time with a ferocity that those who witness it will never be the same again.

Pete Wylie: The Mighty Wah! : Teach Yourself Wah!- A Best Of. Album Review. full post

(481 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)

The Who: Live At Shea Stadium 1982. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It could have been all so different, a moment of loss could have ended the time prematurely of one of the biggest and finest bands to come out of England, and arguably whilst missed, no one would have blamed Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, and John Entwistle is they had called it a day in the wake of Keith Moon’s tragic death.

It was more of a loss than some onlookers could probably comprehend, and unlike some groups, the loss of one member, any member of The Who, was like losing a limb, the body may still be productive, but it really isn’t going to be the same ever again.

The Who: Live At Shea Stadium 1982. Album Review. full post

(600 words, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Wicked Little Letters. Film Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision * * * *

Cast: Jessie Buckley, Olivia Colman, Hugh Skinner, Timothy Spall, Anjana Vasan, Lolly Adefope, Eileen Atkins, Alisha Weir, Joanna Scanlan, Jason Watkins, Gemma Jones, Malachi Kirby, Richard Goulding, Paul Chahidi, Grant Crookes, Adam Treasure, Jamie Chapman, Susie Fairfax, Ryan Mann, Neil Fox-Roberts, Paul A Munday.

The act of a keyboard warrior who takes great delight in taking down people online is one of extreme cowardice, the mark of the scoundrel; but it is not one that is new to us in society, and since the advent of communication, since the ability to send letters in near anonymity, the scope of bringing distress and harm to others has been more invasive, terrible, cruel, and even pushed many to a place where death/suicide is an outcome the, the cowards, are hoping for.

Wicked Little Letters. Film Review. full post

(715 words, estimated 2:52 mins reading time)

Sexy Beast. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: James McArdle, Emun Elliott, Sarah Greene, Stephen Moyer, Tamsin Grieg, Eliza Bennett, John Dagleish, Paul Kaye, Clea Martin, Peter Ferdinando, Robbie Gee, Nicholas Nunn, Lex Shrapnel, Barry Castagnola, Stanley Morgan, Nitin Ganatra, David Kennedy, Cally Lawrence, Michael Obiora, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Clare Burt, Megan Morgan, Hannah van der Westhuysen, Nicola Wright, Ralph Brown, Andy Eadie, Javier Ramos.

Sexy Beast. Television Drama Review. full post

(410 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Breezers: Hideaway. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision 9/10

The sound of seduction is more than an offering of red roses to the person  who took our heart in high school, it is the memory of the Hideaway we ran to calm down and collect our thoughts when a reply in either the affirmative or the scorned down look of the resounding no, the loud, embarrassed squeal heard in the corridors and the empty laughs of our compadres as they take us by the shoulder and commiserate or celebrate along with us.

Breezers: Hideaway. Album Review. full post

(399 words, estimated 1:36 mins reading time)

Rory Ryan: When You’re Alone, How Does It Feel? Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

We are only alone if we truly believe that there is nothing that surrounds us.

We can go out into the environment which we first gazed upon as a wondering, interested child and find stimulation, whether in the cliffs that overlook a raging sea or an ocean holding darkness and frightening diversity in equal stunning measure, or on the hard soaked pavements and austere bricks and mortar that reflect a mindset of uniformity and almost sterile infringement, we ask the question on loneliness with sincerity and a knowing sign on our stomachs.

Rory Ryan: When You’re Alone, How Does It Feel? Album Review. full post

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

Miracle Mile: East Of Ely. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

To fall in love with art when you know you could never bring into the world something of extreme fascination or beauty is to feel a pulse of the universe reward you for your ability to feel, if not to do, then at least connect in ways that many will never understand.

Some may call it a natural affinity, others an empathy or a soul divination, but perhaps we are looking at it a way that doesn’t have an explanation, perhaps it is just a fact that in some respects miracles exist, that marvels find the right wavelength and choose a mind in which to inhabit and sink their artistic D.N.A into.

Miracle Mile: East Of Ely. Album Review. full post

(362 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)