goodnight vienna, hello liverpool

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:33 AM | add or read comments (0)

News is that the Tate Liverpool has now sold around 20,000 tickets for its hotly-anticipated Klimt exhibition which opens today.
It means the show is already a record-breaker, which must be a record in itself.

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princess knows best

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:15 AM | add or read comments (0)

Princess Anne was in town earlier this week to officially open the new Victoria Art Gallery and Museum at Liverpool University.
It's been a busy time for royal visits with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh last Thursday and then their only daughter barely a week later.
The £8.6m gallery and museum opens to the public on June 30 and it will be free to visit which is great news.
The Princess Royal spent an hour there on Wednesday and by all accounts she was particularly interested in the skeleton they have of 1897 and 1899 Grand National winner Manifesto.

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evita triumph

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:39 AM | add or read comments (0)

It was Evita press night on Tuesday and I admit I felt a bit nervous.
With our Magaldi auditions and various chats with the cast, I'd started to feel quite motherly about the whole production.
Not that it would have stopped me being critical of it in my review if it had needed it.
But they deserved the standing ovation because, as many people said to me afterwards, it was the best version of Evita they had ever seen.

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bagging a brace of beatles

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:01 AM | add or read comments (0)

So after chasing the elusive Ringo Starr round and round the Chelsea Flower Show asking "have you got a message for Liverpool?" it was a relief when Paul McCartney agreed to call ME!
Macca agreed to have a chat with the Echo in the run up to Liverpool Sound on Sunday.
Of course, nothing goes without a hitch and as we've all seen in the letters pages and in stories today there are a number of unhappy top price ticketholders who have suddenly found themselves in the relegation zone as far as seating is concerned.
It's such a shame, because Macca's first gig in Liverpool for five years should be a day for celebration, not recrimination.
Let's hope the council/culture company get it sorted out, because as someone at the heart of Sunday said to me, they don't want things to turn into a fiasco.
We can't AFFORD things to turn into a fiasco frankly.

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royal visit and filming in the city

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:27 AM | add or read comments (0)

Ah, a day (almost) at rest after the flurry of the Queen's visit yesterday.
And I'm not the only one who is probably relieved - a little bird told me Liverpool One boss Rod Holmes could be seen scurrying around the site on Tuesday telling everyone "come on, come on, the Queen's coming" or words to that effect.
Still, Rod has what is probably a rather busy week ahead of him now whereas for most of the rest of us it's the bank holiday.
At least the sun shone and several hundred people turned out to see the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh.

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chelsea flower show pics

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 2:30 PM | add or read comments (0)

I took a plethora of pictures at the Chelsea Flower Show and couldn't get them all on yesterday's entry so here are some of the others.....

(George Harrison's Wavertree birthplace is remembered in the garden to his life)

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mr roscoe and harris-sun

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 7:58 AM | add or read comments (0)

From Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen and live chickens to the undignified scrum for Ringo.
No one told me the Chelsea Flower Show could be so much fun!

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bryn terfel

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 1:42 PM | add or read comments (0)

Another one of those "highlights" of Capital of Culture year.
I don't mean those quote marks sarcastically - there really have been so many highlights in 2008 and it's only mid-May.
In fact, last night's concert at the Phil was the second stunning Capital of Culture event I'd attended in the same week, after the treat of Tartuffe on Tuesday.
Not forgetting the Sheppard-Worlock statue unveiling last Sunday.
Terfel was in fine, effortlessly glorious voice as you'd expect. But the Phil and Phil choir were his match at every step and they as much as Terfel deserved the standing ovation that came after three musical encores.
Mind you, not everyone in the audience was overjoyed he finished with You'll Never Walk Alone.....

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tour de farce

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:29 AM | add or read comments (0)

I've been telling everyone I meet: "you must go and see Tartuffe."
The Roger McGough-adapted, Gemma Bodinetz-directed rhyming comedy is on at the Playhouse until May 31.
And it seems to be playing to standing ovations most nights.
I'm happy to admit I was so bowled over by the production I gave it 10/10 in my review yesterday - only the second 10 I have handed out in more than five years of reviewing for the Echo.
On the face of it, the idea of going to see a 17th century French play about religious hypocrisy may not appeal to everyone.
But you'll regret it if you don't go.
A Capital of Culture highlight. In fact, a highlight of any time and any where.

cinderella press conference

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 1:56 PM | add or read comments (0)

Press conferences - they're great.
Oh no they aren't! Oh yes they are!
I've just returned from the Empire where they were unveiling their stellar line up for the Christmas panto Cinderella.
Cinders herself, Jenny Ellison, has filming commitments and couldn't be there.
But fairy godmother Cilla Black was in attendance dressed in silver and looking like a cross between a mermaid and Elvis.

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bluecoat fire

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:27 AM | add or read comments (0)

News this morning of a fire at the newly-refurbished Bluecoat.
It appears to have started in the kitchen area and spread into the new restaurant, although the galleries and performances space aren't affected.
I was only there yesterday, having lunch in the courtyard garden as the restaurant isn't open on a Monday.
We'll have to wait and see what has happened, but it's the last thing the hard-working team at the arts centre - which has been enjoying huge popularity since its reopening - need.

the real scarlet pimpernel

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 3:42 PM | add or read comments (0)

I see him here, I see him there, I see Roger McGough everywhere.
Anyone would think the bard of Liverpool was involved in the Scarlet Pimpernel at the Empire instead of Tartuffe at the Playhouse....
Yesterday morning I was walking along Hope Street and spotted Roger sitting on the suitcases while people fluttered around him doing a photo shoot.
24 hours later, I walked into the Bluecoat garden for an al fresco lunch with a culture contact to spot the ubiquitous McGough - this time surrounded by a film crew and with Eddie Amoo.
Where next? After work at the deli in Sefton Park Asda with Mike Leigh?

statue unveiling

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:40 AM | add or read comments (0)

It was, even though I say so myself, a triumph - although as the thunder cracked around the sky I did wonder if we'd get through it unsoaked.
After three years, two months and one week, the Echo's Sheppard-Worlock statue appeal came to a rewarding conclusion yesterday when the statue was unveiled during the city's Pentecost walk of faith.
Thousands of people turned out to witness the unveiling, alongside church leaders and members of both Sheppard and Worlock families.

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petrenko poppet

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:31 AM | add or read comments (0)

How cute is this child?!
Now I'm not really the maternal type, but if I had a little boy half this sweet I think I'd be won over to the pushchair brigade.
Conductor Vasily Petrenko took his young family to lunch with the Lord Mayor last Friday at the Town Hall.
And that included four-year-old Alexander.

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simply simpson

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 9:18 AM | add or read comments (0)

I had to laugh - but it was meant in a good way.
In fact I was still chortling as Vasily raised his baton and the orchestra was poised to start.
What caused my outburst?
Young Musician of the Year Mark Simpson.

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sheppard-worlock statue

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 8:04 AM | add or read comments (0)

After three years and not a little agonising, we're almost there.
The Sheppard-Worlock statue, commissioned by the ECHO and paid for by the generosity of so many people both in and outside Liverpool, will be unveiled on Sunday.
Anyone who ventures down Hope Street today will probably see the sculptor, Stephen Broadbent, working on its installation.

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tate's birthday

• Posted by Catherine Jones at 2:19 PM | add or read comments (0)

The Tate put on its 20th birthday bash at the weekend and I was like a cakeaholic in a cake shop.
No change there then.
It didn't help that I arrived at the gallery just before the Lord Mayor cut the official birthday cake designed by artist Lisa Milroy and made by the talented staff of Cake Shop Liverpool.

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