August 2008 Archives

The streets are awash with cans, bottles and bags now - but that's always the sign of a fantastic Mathew Street Festival.
I've just returned from my second singalong of the day.
First I felt impelled (!) to join the 3,000 firefighters down at the Kings Dock for their rendition of Hey Jude.
Now I've been off to see the marvellous God Save the Queen at the Tunnel Stage.
Although really it should be named the William Brown Street stage.

Oraganisers of big music events are used to having to run around after the stars to satisfy what can often be bizarre "rider" requests.
You know the kind of thing - 12 different types of volcanic mineral water, lilies cut at precisely 11.20pm on the night of a full moon, mung beans......
So it's somewhat heartening to hear that all Chas and Dave - who are playing at this weekend's Mathew Street Festival - have requested on theirs is a pot of tea and some egg and cress sandwiches.

I spent my first afternoon back at work standing in a mystery location on Merseyside watching a bunch of French artists testing out the controls of the La Machine mystery creature.
Everything is a mystery with this one as you may have gathered by now.
The production team behind the project - which could well rival Go Superlambananas for Capital of Culture's most incredible street festival - are going to extreme lengths to protect the identity of their project.
And fair play to them.
Because when it all starts to unfold in a couple of weeks, they want it to be one gigantic surprise.

"I thought you'd left the paper" one of my fellow commuters told me on the bus to work this morning.
Well, despite the picture byline changing and the silence on this blog, I can tell you I haven't - I've merely been on holiday.
It was a bit of a wrench to leave Capital of Culture behind for two-and-a-half weeks, and strange to come back to the office and a million emails this morning.
But on the other hand, there were the 30C+ days of hot sunshine, the cold beer and the stamps in the passport!
And I spread the merry word about Capital of Culture throughout the Balkans, from Belgrade to Sarajevo, so I hope I didn't let the Scouse side down.
Now it's feet under the table time and Mathew Street Festival, World Firefighter Games and La Machine to look forward to.
So if anyone has got an event they need to tell me about, now is the chance.......