SO they have finally announced that Prince Charles will reopen St George's Hall on April 23.
Security concerns mean the royals only give two weeks' notice for their official visits these days, but everyone has been beavering away behind the scenes for months.
The main reason for his visit is to officially reopen St George's Hall after its £23m makeover. Apparently it's one of HRH's favourite buildings in the whole country.
He's even going to be giving a lecture in the small concert room while he is here, following in the footsteps of another Charles....Charles Dickens who used to pull in the crowds with his penny readings.
Still, they won't be queuing round the block in the snow like they did for Dickens.
Apart from the fact it's currently unseasonably warm, the Prince Charles lecture is a closed gig with only the usual 'great and the good' invited.
It's down in Toxteth that he's likely to meet some real Liverpudlians during his day in the city, and it's good to see he's rostered to spend almost two hours at Toxteth Town Hall in between the pomp and ceremony.
Scousers and Scouserati were out in force at the Empire last night for Twopence to Cross the Mersey.
This latest production of the unremittingly depressing Helen Forrester tale of pauperism in 1930s Liverpool has a strong Scouse cast - even if half of them ARE 'talking posh' (it took me about 20 minutes to realise that it was Mark Moraghan playing Helen's dad)
Pauline Daniels plays the older Helen and unlike her predecessor Eleanor Bron, who - apart from having a disastrous press night a couple of years ago when she was ill and kept forgetting her lines - wasn't really a singer, she has the vocal chords to give the duets with young Helen plenty of power.
Drew Schofield was on comic form, and I thought Nick Conway, who used to play Billy Boswell in Bread and is actually a Manc, acquitted himself well too.
Twopence veteran Gordon Hall, who plays the old gentleman who encourages Helen to read, had his song cut from the current show but regaled us with a verse at the after-show party.
Some people find the story just too depressing (at least one person I knew couldn't face the second half which was probably a good thing as they missed Jamie Clarke's Helen trying to throw herself in the Mersey!) and personally I always want to give Helen's selfish, feckless mum a good clout.
Anyway, everyone was in high spirits at the party in the Atrium bar where fish and chips were served in newspaper cones and the drinks flowed.
Among those reaching for the salt and vinegar were the cast themselves, writers Rob Fennah and Helen Jones, Suzanne Collins (looking very glam although she's SO thin I can't imagine she ate any of the chips), Mickey Starke - who is Jamie Clarke's dad, Billy Butler, and John Lennon's sister Julia Baird who was with fellow Cavern Club director Dave Jones among others.
Incidently, Rob Fennah is currently working on something called Julia's Banjo which I imagine is based on John and Julia's mum Julia Lennon.....
One of the guests berated me for giving the Moscow State Circus 7/10 in my review yesterday - he says he enjoyed the big top experience so much he's going back again.
Then he spoilt his argument slightly by admitting it was purely to see the very bendy lady doing magic tricks in her leotard...
