Were you one of those who caught the David Morrissey 'in conversation' at St George's Hall last night?
Alas, I wasn't able to go which was very annoying as he's an intelligent and interesting speaker, while Gemma Aldcroft and Karen Podesta of Club Geek Chic, who put on the event, deserve success for all their hard work bringing the 'in conversation' evenings together.

I hope people had a chance to read my interview with Peter and Zoltan Katona in yesterday's Echo - or the extended version on the website.
The brothers are playing a relatively rare Liverpool concert next month and I'd encourage anyone who hasn't seen (or heard) them play to get along to St George's Hall on December 14.
Alas I won't be able to catch them this time as it's also the press night for Aladdin at the Empire across the road.

Amazingly, it's 25 years since Lesley Garrett made her first appearance in Liverpool.
She played Esmeralda the wire walker in the Welsh National Opera's version of the Bartered Bride back in 1985.
But despite the thousands of performances she's done since, she does recall her city debut - although not for all together happy reasons.

They need £10.6m for the restoration and regeneration of the Royal Court and last night the theatre got Cherie Booth (aka Cherie Blair) on board to help bang the drum.
She brought dad Tony with her to the drinks do on the 38th floor of the West Tower in Brook Street - which swayed disconcertingly in the high winds to the point where you NEEDED a drink just to steady your legs!

Watch out ladies, Marti Pellow is on his way back to Liverpool in another devillish role at the Empire.
Last year he did indeed play the (saucy) devil himself in The Witches of Eastwick.

Liverpool Improvisation Collective (LIC) and associate artists are holding Raw Roar Rare, a five day performance festival happening at the Bluecoat next week.
Raw Roar Rare - Critical Dialogue for Artist and Audience is aimed at pushing the boundaries of content, politics, and aesthetics in performance. 

So Arts Council England has announced the anticipated shake up of its funding procedures following hot on the heels of the government's slashing of its budget in the comprehensive spending review.
The 10-year strategic review plan has been a while in the making, but of course it all seems to be happening at once now.
It means from 2012 its current regularly funded arts organisations (there are 25 in Liverpool) will have to go through an open application process and organisations will also be eligible for funding.

It's lovely to find director Terence Davies so chipper and full of plans - and a lot of it is down to Capital of Culture.
Cue the "L" word - legacy.
The Kensington-born (and I mean L7 and not of the & Chelsea variety) film-maker is super busy on projects which have all bubbled up following his 2008 documentary Of Time and the City.

Did you know that Beyonce is related to the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler? Neither did I, but apparently she's his eighth cousin four times removed.
It's amazing what you can learn on a sunny Saturday morning. I also learned for example that if you sit at a piano with a pair of scissors and some garden hose you can recreate 'concert F' on your own homemade French horn.

My interview with Melanie C, aka Mel C, aka Sporty Spice, aka Whiston-born Melanie Chisholm (so many monikers!) is in today's Echo.
The 36-year-old is the latest Liverpool star to want to come 'home' and perform on a city stage which has got to be great news for the city.
I don't know of anywhere, with the obvious exception of London, that has quite the same breadth and depth of successful performers, writers, comedians, musicians and sportsmen and women as this city.