Towards Zero. Television Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ella Lily Hyland, Matthew Rhys, Mimi Keene, Clarke Peters, Jack Farthing, Anjana Vasan, Adam Hugill, Khalil Ben Gharbia, Jackie Clune, Grace Doherty, Anjelica Huston, Ravi Multani, Jack Staddon, Alexander Cobb, James Brooker, Lyle Wren, Michael Culkin, Honor Davis-Pye, Samuel W. Hodgson, Tristan Beint, Peter Forbes, Alexander Squires.

Murder, at its most inventive, sells for television and cinema almost unlike any other genre; it is the basic desire to see the restitution of justice, the chance for the armchair detective to sharpen their wits against the author of the piece, and to satisfy a need to see if they could indeed also get away with the most horrendous of acts one human can commit on another.

Towards Zero. Television Drama Review. full post

(473 words, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

The 39 Steps. Theatre Review. Salisbury Playhouse.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Danielle Bird, Mei Mei MacLeod, Mateo Oxley, Phil Yarrow, Charlotte Bloomsbury.

The fast and the curious are given their true sense of exhilaration and thrills in the sublime Patrick Barlow adaption of the John Buchan novel, The 39 Steps, and in dramatic fashion the brilliance of farce and the sheer genius of buffoonery is once more aligned with the stars and the conceit of the spy story is shown for the creativity that the production deserves.

The 39 Steps. Theatre Review. Salisbury Playhouse. full post

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

Geoff Carne & The Raw Rox Band: Making Moves. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Making Moves, an aspect of human life that shows our intent to strive for a higher plane, to understand that whilst occasionally we might need to rest, we must never sit long enough that the belief in our purpose is replaced by the temptation to settle, we must forever see life as a mysterious adventure, not as a couch worn away by the imprint of our remains and established habit.

Geoff Carne & The Raw Rox Band: Making Moves. Album Review. full post

(382 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

Nik Kershaw: The MCA Years. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

NIK KERSHAW - MCA YEARS 11 DISC BOX SET 10CD/1DVD - New 10CD - B4z - Picture 1 of 1

It could be argued that the flourishing appearances of the artist’s complete works in boxset form is down to age, to nostalgia, and dare it be mentioned, the possibility of exploitation by the companies that may own the rights to the music, to the songs that certain generations came to hang their love and dreams upon. Perhaps this is more prevalent now for Generation X and those that came into their own musically during the period of the 70s and 80s, for not a week seems to go past where a hero of the age is repackaged in all their glory for the masses to soak up the sound, the memory allowed to resurface, and the years, those decades between, once more attended to in full glorious colour.

Nik Kershaw: The MCA Years. Box Set Review. full post

(477 words, 1 image, estimated 1:54 mins reading time)

Flook: Sanju. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Integrity is arguably the pinnacle of human interaction we seek, to be taken at one’s word, and to know that the person you are speaking to doesn’t don’t your word, your intention, or your meaning; it is the reliability of consistent truth, the honour of not mincing words…never mind success, never mind riches and pride, to be virtuous in both praise and criticism is the height of being human.

Flook: Sanju. Album Review. full post

(372 words, 1 image, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Pennyworth. Television Review. Series 1-3

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10

Cast: Jack Bannon, Ryan Fletcher, Dorothy Atkinson, Ben Aldridge, Emma Paetz, Ramon Tikaram, Paloma Faith, Harriet Slater, Polly Walker, Jason Flemyng, Ian Puleston-Davies, Simon Manyonda, Hainsley Lloyd Bennett, Simon Day, Anna Chancellor, Saikat Ahamed, Jessica Ellerby, Edward Hogg, James Purefoy, Danny Webb, Salóme Gunnarsdóttir, Tristram Wymark, Sarah Alexander, Richard Dillane, Paul Kaye, Jonjo O’Neill, Emma Corrin, Jing Lusi, Freddy Carter, Peter Guinness, Jaye Griffiths, Dermot Crowley, Sally Phillips, Felicity Kendal, Sam Hoare.

Pennyworth. Television Review. Series 1-3 full post

(606 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

When Alan Met Ray. Radio Drama Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Paul Whitehouse, Harry Enfield, Don Gilet, Lee Ross, Tony Gardner, Mika Simmons, Simon Greenall, Phil Cornwell, Toby Longworth, Andrew McGibbon, Ian Pearce, Karen Bartke.

Out of adversity comes genius, from hardship come friendship that lasts a lifetime, and When Alan Met Ray in a T.B. sanitorium in post war Britain, when neither 18-year-old were expected to live much longer thanks to the disease the world called White Plague or Consumption ravaging their lungs and body, what came out of this terrible situation was a comradeship for Alan Simpson and Ray Galton that transcended disease and saw the pair became two of Britain’s much loved providers of comedy thanks to their working with Tony Hancock on radio and television, and the irreplaceable Harry H. Corbett and Wilfred Brambell on the sheer delight that was Steptoe And Son.

When Alan Met Ray. Radio Drama Review. full post

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

David Lee Roth: The Warner Recordings1985-1994. Box Set Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

David Lee Roth - The Warner Recordings (1985-1994) [New CD] Boxed Set - Picture 2 of 2

There are frontmen and women, and there are icons, the latter being the special kind which do more than just perform and maintain the relationship between band and the audience, they spread a musical infection which borders on delirium, they find a way to tap in to the fever and the euphoria of the occasion that sends waves of chaos across the largest venue, the stadium, or even the nestled and modest local scene and hang out; they are more than the face of the band, the voice of the moment, they are the larger than life symbol that a generation clings to as they search for expression and meaning.

David Lee Roth: The Warner Recordings1985-1994. Box Set Review. full post

(588 words, 1 image, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Dorothy Bird: Dream With Me. Single Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

We have become separated by the noise, the disconnection between former friends, allies, even family members has come about through a variety of divisive factors, each amplified to a point and a peak where opinion overrides fact and detail, the emotion of our loss is magnified by the constant barrage of updates, one-sided statements, and the feeling of information to our inner circle…but it doesn’t have to be that way, we can, rather than create war with each other and throw constant blows of verbal statistics, dream together, use our imagination to invent, design, and give hope where others lay waste.

Dorothy Bird: Dream With Me. Single Review. full post

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

STUD: Under Silver Sky. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Under Silver Sky we find a meaning, the land below reflecting in the glow of precious colours, far and away from the bleak dark hues that dog us, unscorched by the orange and yellows of a blistering sun; that meaning is that of tranquil repose, of a calm composed of serenity and possibility, and one to whom the sound of melodic rock is always a welcome addition.

STUD: Under Silver Sky. Album Review. full post

(339 words, 1 image, estimated 1:21 mins reading time)