Culture Chat

steve coogan and the case of the missing sense of humour

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:22:12 +0000

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Putting it down to the tedious and outdated excuse of Liverpool v Manchester rivalry is disingenuous and blaming the show's failure on the audience is plainly insulting.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.

dada and the macca auction

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:22:12 +0000

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.

all together now

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:22:12 +0000

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.

open air cinematics

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:54:20 +0000

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!

willy russell

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:38:24 +0000

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.

culture survey

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:18:48 +0000

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.

teenage kicks

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:19:43 +0000

I went to see the premiere of the final Digital Departures film at FACT last night.
The storyline of Kicks centres around two teenage girls - Nicole and Jasmine - who bond over their love for (fictitious) Liverpool player Lee Cassidy, but when they get obsessive things turn decidedly messy.
And I tell you something, if I was a Premiership player, Kicks would scare the **** out of me!

the "L" words

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:23:58 +0000

The air is full of the "L" word.
No, not love, but legacy.
Actually, there's also look as in look back at the year as well.
Where have the months gone? And why, with five weeks left of 2008 does it feel like Capital of Culture is already coming to a close?
Probably because of the L word, which is now being bandied about with abandon.

what a week

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 08:37:50 +0000

Phew, it's Friday!
Another mad week for Capital of Culture which reached its peak last night with the MTV European Music Awards at the ECHO Arena.
I say "European" but it was dominated by the Americans who won pretty much everything.
I hear Liverpool and the Arena looked pretty fab on the TV though.
I say "hear" because I didn't actually get to see it - either in the flesh or on telly. But that's another story.
It was hard, however, to miss the scrum of fans and photographers waiting for the stars outside the Radisson.
Anyway, one hot ticket I DID get was to see King Lear at the Everyman on Wednesday evening.
It's not every day you see a (very skinny) bearded Pete Postlethwaite in a dress doing unmentionable things to himself!

who do you think you are?

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:54:48 +0000

I've been a keen genealogist for more than 20 years - my enthusiasm first fired by an old family bible with copperplate handwriting.
In fact, if I wasn't a journalist I'd quite like to have been a genealogist, investigating and fleshing out people's family backgrounds.
So I was interested to hear Nick Barratt, of BBC Who Do You Think You Are? fame, give a talk at the Family History Fair at St George's Hall on Saturday.

king lear

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:33:32 +0000

How exciting is this? Only 24 hours until Pete "the Poss" Postlethwaite steps out on the Everyman stage for the first night of King Lear.
Press night is next week and there's a real air of anticipation - not least from myself because despite going to the RSC at Stratford regularly as a schoolgirl and as a reviewer, I've never seen this particular Shakespearean tragedy before.
I've sat through Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. TWICE. And very good it was too. I've seen Ben Kingsley's Othello (David Suchet was the scheming Iago) and I've even watched Sean Bean wielding a sword in Romeo and Juliet.
But for some reason King Lear has never stepped my way.

spotlight on the pier head

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 09:19:15 +0000

You wait for a story about the Pier Head - and then two come along at the same time.
Yesterday morning I was down on the waterfront (well wrapped up compared to most of the others who had gathered in no more than suits and shirts. The fools!) for the official opening of the first phase of the redevelopment.
Then last night I popped back down to watch Ben Parry's film Terminus being beamed on to the side of the ventilation building.

do you sing John Peel?

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 08:24:47 +0000

Yes, before you ask, it was me singing the chorus to Does This Train Stop on Merseyside on the TV news last night.
I'll get Jane Barrett for that!
We were sitting on the newly-named John Peel Merseyrail train on a journey from Liverpool South Parkway to the city centre, alongside Peel's wife Sheila and three of their kids.
And why were we singing? Because the song, by Liverpool band Amsterdam, was one of the late DJ's favourites. In fact, apparently it used to make him cry.

wildlife

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 08:03:35 +0000

I went to see Monkey, performed by the youth theatre, at the Everyman last night.
There was certainly plenty of monkeying around on stage.
But I hear it was more Lynx backstage where the air was apparently asthma-inducingly heavy with the teenage boys' favourite deoderant.......

philip jones griffiths

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:50:24 +0000

You may not know the name, but it's likely you've seen the photos.
Philip Jones Griffiths' images of ordinary Vietnamese caught up in the Vietnam conflict changed public opinion on the war, and changed lives.
The Welshman was on of the greatest photographers of the 20th century.
And a new exhibition of his work opens tomorrow at the Conservation Centre in Whitechapel.
I was asked to officially help open the show at a launch reception last night.