Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
There seems to be a never ending way to experience The Wall and yet each time the fan or the casual amateur psychologist reaches in, placing their trust and their heart to the album’s creator, Roger Waters, it never seems to do anything but drain with beautiful emotion, to dig deep down into the very core of human experience, just exactly what the album, the songs and the essence of what life is.
Scene: The interior of a bar in the early hours of the morning, there is the sound of laughter; the gentle sound of music floating through the air, a raised voice overwhelms the music briefly and the clatter of a pool ball being struck too hard. On set there are two people to be seen, one a barmaid cleaning glasses and occasionally pouring a drink for someone unseen off stage and to the left of the stage a man sat on a stool, leaning against a wall one hand on a glass the other reading a book. Beside his chair is a rucksack. The sound of the pool ball being smacked again too hard and it bounces once and starts to roll towards the man in the chair who for a moment doesn’t look up from his book until he hears the sound of someone shouting his name. The music dies down as the young man looks at the ball. Carefully he puts down the glass, whilst keeping the book held tightly on the page he is on and walks over to the ball and picks it up, staring at it for a moment as if in quiet contemplation. He walks over to the darkness and hands back the ball.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Iwan Rheon, Amaka Okafor, Rufus Sewell, Bill Nighy, Adrian Scarborough, Peter Marinker, Robert Blythe, Ben Crowe, Philippa Stanton.
Tom Stoppard’s pedigree goes before him, he is arguably one of the most prolific and important playwrights of the latter half of the 20th Century and his work has continued to be a source of inspiration and keenly watched and listened to. The idea though that he would come up with an original play that delved deep into the mindset of British Progressive Rock Kings Pink Floyd and their seminal 1973 best-selling album Dark Side of the Moon could be seen by some, if not many, as a voyage of linguistic artistry too far. However if anyone can do justice to the opus that revolves around madness then Tom Stoppard perhaps is one of the finest to even attempt it the daunting process.
It seems slightly ironic that at a time when the Falklands debate rages once more between the U.K. and Argentinian Governments, an album that uses the conflict between the two countries as a focus for an anti-war message should be celebrating its 30th anniversary. It is almost with bitterness and a shaking of heads that Pink Floyd’s 1983 album The Final Cut should still resonate across the many thousands of miles between Buenos Aires and London. Even after the Falkland Islanders have had the unprecedented and historic vote in the last few weeks on where they see their future, the echoes of a conflict that was born in the spring of 1982 but had its genesis over a period of a couple of hundred years, still rages and the thoughts of the people caught between two ideologically opposed governments might in the end not matter.
There has been so much written about Dark Side of the Moon that to even attempt to add more could be seen as either reckless folly, a journey of writing insanity or a grandiose piece of that is seen as just adding to the cannon and millions of words that have surrounded Pink Floyd’s much admired 1973 album.
Originally published by L.S. Media. September 7th 2012.
A Momentary Lapse of Reason was the first Pink Floyd album since Roger Waters had left the band in 1985 and it didn’t nearly happen. Originally intended as a David Gilmour solo album, Momentary… suddenly became a vehicle for David Gilmour to show that the Pink Floyd name wasn’t dead and buried, “a spent force” as Roger Waters had suggested. Joined by drummer Nick Mason, the only member of Floyd to have played on every album, Momentary… was for the new look Floyd as The Final Cutwas for the band as they started to disintegrate and ultimately go their own way.
Originally published by L.S. Media. February 27th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating *****
In the world of musical clichés, one of the most often bandied about and repeated with startling regularity is that Pink Floyd’s 1979 album, The Wall, is the greatest moment of Rock music captured for posterity forever.
Originally first published on L.S. Media 31st July 2012.
L.S. Media Rating ***
This is the next century…
Think Tank, the last studio album, so far, by Blur is one that for all the best will in the world is one that is confusing for Blur fans. Yes it’s Blur, the magic of Damon Albarn’s lyrics were still there and the musical talent of Alex James and Dave Rowntree were evident. What was missing was vital ingredient of Graham Coxon, without him Blur were a threesome for the first time in their career and it unfortunately showed as without his compatriot for all but one song, Damon Albarn sounds tired and it could be suggested that the pull of side project, Gorillaz, was too much for the talented song-writer to cope with.