Tag Archives: Review

Black Diamond, THE EP, Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are some things in life that should come with a cautionary sign attached them. Not the dangerous ones in which various pictures are plastered over the front of packaging and perforated with Government Surgeon General advice, not the kind in which Tipper Gore managed to spring load and foster fear over the corruption of young American minds and not the imaginary ones that should be written in paint over the front of polling stations which proclaim the words, Governments can seriously cause you stress but the ones that state loud and proud, “This C.D. will change the way you look at local music” or “Stop watching television, get out there and listen to this band, they will make you smile harder than rhinoceros armed with a gun and a poacher cowering on its knees.”

Black Diamond, THE EP, Review. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Rachael Dunn, Placing Stars. E.P. Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Like the good old 45 R.P.M single, the bastion of pop charts past, there are times when an E.P. can leave you trustingly wanting more.  You love them; they speak to you in the same way that a novella or well-written Ernest Hemmingway short story can grab your attention for a while but you just cannot help knowing that a little more would send you over the edge into some sort of exquisite dream. Like the child only being allowed one small sweet lest the sugar content send them going into a crazy spiral of juvenile energy rush, the listener has to limit themselves to knowing what has been put out is enough, even if it is with a shrug of musical despondency.

Rachael Dunn, Placing Stars. E.P. Review. full post

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

Suggs, My Life in Words and Music, Review. The Atkinson, Southport.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

To a generation and beyond Suggs is a man who has been with them probably throughout their entire lives. He and Madness are so entwined as part of the very fabric of the U.K’s glowing music history that to dismiss him would be reckless, even a crass thoughtless statement.

For all those that made their way to Southport’s Atkinson Theatre to listen to him relate, admittedly in a condensed form, moments of his lifetime from his best-selling autobiography in the two hour My Life in Words and Music, were left thrilled, amused, slightly stunned at the candour and the utter excitement of a man who has lived and been admired.

Suggs, My Life in Words and Music, Review. The Atkinson, Southport. full post

(541 words, estimated 2:10 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Justice of Jalxar. Big Finish Audio Drama, 2.04, Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, Trevor Baxter, Christopher Benjamin, Mark Goldthorp, Rosanna Miles, Ben Bishop, Adrian Lukis.

Two of the best loved characters from the classic period of Doctor Who make a stunning return in the canon and manage to lighten the mood in their own superb interminable style in one of the stand out highs so far of Tom Baker’s return to the role he relished in for many years. Jago and Litefoot appeared nearly 40 years ago in the episodes surrounding the mystery of Weng-Chiang and now they return in The Justice of Jalxar.

Doctor Who, The Justice of Jalxar. Big Finish Audio Drama, 2.04, Review. full post

(570 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Dinosaurs On A Spaceship. B.B.C. Television, Review.

Cast: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Mark Williams, Rupert Graves, Riann Steele, David Bradley, Sunetra Sarkur, David Mitchell, Robert Webb.

Liverpool Sound And Vision Rating ****

Cruelty, genocide and wading knee deep in Ankylosaurus and vicious raptors, just your average job for the Doctor but just that little bit beyond the ordinary for viewers of series seven of Doctor Who.

Doctor Who, Dinosaurs On A Spaceship. B.B.C. Television, Review. full post

(439 words, 1 image, estimated 1:45 mins reading time)

Only Child, Only Child. E.P. Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. August 22nd 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Alan O’ Hare was one of the members of one of the finest bands to come out of Liverpool in the last ten years. As part of The Trestles, they didn’t just make good music, the exemplified a growing disaffection with the world and their debut album was one of the most important made by a Merseyside band in years.

When The Trestles went their separate ways, to those that loved the music, it felt as though a voice was being lost to the high pitch babble that is force fed on occasion from reality television programmes.

Only Child, Only Child. E.P. Review. full post

(457 words, 1 image, estimated 1:50 mins reading time)