December 2008 Archives

THREE Christmas shows in three nights - no wonder I need a lie down.
So goodness knows what the cast of Cinderella feels like after doing two shows in one day.
Les Dennis (Buttons) looked pretty pooped at the aftershow party on Tuesday night, but then he does have a lot of running around to do and - no offence Les - he won't see 50 again.
He was, as my friend and I told him afterwards, our favourite (but without the deathknell connotations that phrase has now after Bruce Forsyth's liberal use of it in Strictly).

Did anyone see the Steve Coogan '60 second interview' in the Metro this morning?
Good old Steve decided to use it to have a pop at Liverpool, Liverpudlians and - to a lesser extent - the Liverpool Echo.
Well, I suppose all publicity is good publicity!
And of course, he's entitled to his own opinion.
Even if it is a bit rich.
Some of you may remember that Steve brought his comedy show to the Echo Arena in October.
I missed the show, but I am well aware it got less than glowing reviews from both the Echo, the Post and also from many of the people who had paid money to see it.
According to Coogan today (in a paper that is read nationally), that's because "Scousers hate Mancunians and the feeling's mutual" and Liverpudlians can't laugh at themselves.
Well Steve, may of them couldn't laugh at you either, and not simply because there were no big screens showing your face to those further back than the 15th row.
It could have had something to do with what the Echo reviewer described as your "wafer thin material" where "the quality of the writing let everything down."
Our colleague at the Post went even stronger, describing it as a "contemptible and almost woeful show" which saw an unusually high number of audience members walking out.
And one fan said he would "rather jump on plug sockets with angry wasps in my mouth than listen to that dross again."
Putting it down to the tedious and outdated excuse of Liverpool v Manchester rivalry is disingenuous and blaming the show's failure on the audience is plainly insulting.
The phrase "a bad workman always blames his tools" springs to mind.

I forgot to mention that I'd attended the DaDa Awards at the BT Convention Centre last week.
I was on a table with the very funnt Mat Fraser and Liz Carr who were compereing, and we had a good laugh over dinner, particularly over the rather sticky meringues which were almost impossible to eat.
There was also a raffle which went on for a long time but did raise a lot of money for the DaDa (deaf and disability arts) organisation.
Mike McCartney was the auctioneer and wrung as much money as he could out of the room.
Among the prizes were some original 45s of The Scaffold's Thank U Very Much and Lily the Pink which Mike and John Gorman had signed, and Mike promised to get Roger McGough's autograph on them too.

I spent Saturday morning standing in a small circle on the stage at the Philharmonic Hall singing All Together Now over and over and over again.
But you know what? It may have been repetitive but it was great fun.
The results will be shown on a giant screen as part of the Transition capital of culture closing party on January 10.
We were divided into groups to sing the chorus of the Farm's classic anthem - I was in the naughty group with Roger Phillips and former Everton midfielder Alan Whittle and his wife.
Everytime the camera was on us we sang lustily. Then when it had passed we had a good old giggle together.

We all know about the new all-singing, all-dancing Odeon Liverpool One, and I've been a member at FACT since it opened.
But for the next three weeks there is a new kid on the block, and one with a difference.
You may not want an ice cold drink when you go to see the films there, but the atmosphere is likely to make up for the potentially chilly or wet surroundings.
St Luke's, the bombed out church, is being transformed into an open air picturehouse at 4pm daily (except Mondays) between now and Christmas.
This week is Humphrey Bogart week, with Casablanca one of the films being shown (on Saturday).
Next week is "Liverpool" week, and in the week starting December 16 it's Christmas time, with classic It's a Wonderful Life showing on Saturday, December 20.
And best of all - the screenings are free!

When Noreen Kershaw stepped into Shirley Valentine's shoes for the first time she garnered rave reviews.
But despite it being such a demanding one-woman role, theatre bosses somehow overlooked the need for an understudy.
So when Noreen was carried off in an ambulance down Hope Street with peritonitis, what could the Everyman do?
Put on playwright Willy Russell to do a one-man reading of his own work on the set.
His recollections of the event formed part of a very entertaining talk organised by Liverpool University at the Philharmonic Hall last night.

CAPITAL of Culture comes to a close this month.
And today the ECHO has launched a major survey to give you the reader a chance to have your say on the year - the highs, the lows, what you enjoyed and what you missed out on.
2008 has been a year of Superlambananas and spiders, of tall ships and number one hits, of Macca and MTV.
But has Capital of Culture been a success for the city? Has it made Liverpool a better place to live? And what would you like its legacy to be?
Visit our online survey on http://tinyurl.com/culture08 to have your say.