So, the Phil’s Mick Elliott has been appointed ‘cultural advisor’ by the Culture Company to fill a little of the hole left by Robyn Archer.
The culture board has also purged itself in a bid to become a more slimline operation and hopefully therefore make itself more responsive and fleet-of-foot in organising 2008.
Good.
Firstly, with its huge workforce and never-ending board of the great and good, the Culture Company had become just too unwieldy.
The watchwords for the next 15 months have surely got to be focus, focus, focus.
Secondly, Mick Elliott will hopefully inject a dose of common sense as well as joie de vivre into artistic proceedings.
He has a decent track record in the arts, and a genial personality.
But don’t be fooled by the smiles - the acrimonious departure of the Phil’s erstwhile conductor Gerald Schwarz shows he can be a tough cookie, not averse to some blood-letting when he feels it’s needed.
