Into The Cauldron

Liverpool Football Club is in the news this evening for the right reasons, & also, alas, the wrong ones too (more of which anon).

Tony Karon emails me with a link to his Rootless Cosmopolitan blog in the wake of a welcome return to form (http://tonykaron.com/2008/03/09/its-the-formation-stupid/ ), noting that "the reason Liverpool is winning again is that the 4-2-3-1 formation allows each of them to play his best game".

It might be recalled that I wasn't too optimistic before the first leg at Anfield. The Jeremiah in me feared the worst, but those qualms were well & truly dispelled by a stirring 2-0 victory.

Going into the second leg at San Siro, Liverpool's recent form fills me with a cautious confidence.

As Tony notes on his post, "Finally, Liverpool fans have reason to believe again, even if our beloved football club is currently the object of a bizarre game of chicken between rival billionaire investors."

On the subject of which..........

The news wires began to hum this afternoon on the news that Tom Hicks has decided to "terminate" talks with DIC: http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2263987,00.html .

After yesterday's Texan tirade against alleged & perceived leaks to the media from DIC's corner over some of the negotiations, Hicks has now cited his chief reason for ending the talks:

"DIC made it clear that if they invested in the club, they would want it to be managed by committee. Based on my 13 years of successful experience as an owner of professional sports teams, and based in particular on the situation at Liverpool Football Club over the past year, it is clear to me that such a committee approach would not be in the best interest of Kop [Hicks' holding company], of the club or of the club's loyal and passionate supporters."

The fans' loyalty & passion was, of course, made evident to Tom Hicks Jnr. last month at the Sandon pub.

It's worth observing that much of the US sports media doesn't share Hicks' assessment of his 13 year involvement with sports Stateside as "successful".

The news will undoubtedly anger most fans after a growing belief, based on briefings to the media from both sides, that a deal was if not imminent, then well on the way to completion. Indeed, it was presented to some reporters as a fait accompli. I suspected that DIC saw their mooted 49% stake in the club as a stepping stone to full control. Hicks probably saw things that way, too, albeit, I'd wager, late in the day. Hence today's unexpected news.

Chaos still reigns; Gillett is as hard to track down as a virgin in a brothel & the whole ownership issue is even more of a mess than before.

What will further anger most fans is the timing of the announcement. Then again, Hicks has form here. On the eve of last year's Champions League Final in Athens he gave an interview in which he compared his & Gillett's Anfield takeover to his acquisition of Weetabix. It was a glib, dismissive & insulting analogy which was, pardon the pun, hard to swallow.

It's difficult to divine Hicks' deeper motives at present. Mind games are to be expected from this latterday JR Ewing figure, but, as his son's seemingly inexplicable decision to walk through the Sandon's doors indicates, this is a family which either doesn't know that it's exacerbating relations with the fans, or knows it only too well, but is inviting a disastrous rift with the supporters.

From A Distance

Saturday's edition of the Culture Show on BBC2 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/cultureshow/ ), which is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer until next Saturday, included a feature on the changing face of Liverpool by the architecture writer Tom Dyckhoff. Focusing on the Big Dig in the city centre, Dyckhoff swooped over the waterfront in a helicopter as he waxed lyrical about some, though not all, developments on the city's skyline. The helicopter shots were impressive, if a little heavy on the panoramic angles. A pity, then, that Dyckhoff should fall into the metropolitan hack's default mindset by juxtaposing images of the Toxteth riots in 1981 with footage of the marches & demos from the Militant years. Dyckhoff allowed himself an extended rant about Hatton & Co. without delving into the political context of the time. Next time you're up here, Tom, let's meet up for a discussion on what was generalised & glossed over in your piece, placing it, too, in a cultural context.

A Mute Media

As I've probably commented once or twice since beginning this blog, my view of the royal family is indifferent, at best, & disdainful, at worst. I make no secret of the fact that I'm a republican. All the available evidence points to the conclusion that Britain would be financially, socially & psychologically improved if the Monarchy ceased to exist; it is little more than a feudal relic which somehow managed to survive into the industrial age.
So my take on the admission that Harry Windsor [Hewitt?] has been winning the war against the Taliban single-handed is coupled with my contempt for the UK media for agreeing to a news blackout while he was in Afghanistan.
As Jon Snow remarked bemusedly in response to the news, thank goodness for the Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com ). Even though it is a neo-con blog in the States, Drudge followed up the story from an Australian magazine last month with its own account:
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashph.htm .
The British media has once again proved itself to be a lapdog for the establishment, happy to roll over & let its tummy be tickled. Sadly, both the BBC & the Guardian were part of the cover-up. In fact, the BBC's coverage last night, replete with fawning royal correspondents & sub Boys Own doggerel masquerading as script, made me question whether the licence fee really is such a good thing after all.
Peter Wilby, the New Statesman columnist, rightly criticises the media for their part in the deal to sit on the story:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_wilby/2008/02/harrys_game.html .
However, I take issue with Wilby's accusation that the media have been "suckered" by the MoD. The media is not a victim in this squalid scenario. Rather, it is an equally complicit partner.

Password Precaution

What's your password, Richard?

Call it serendipity, call it a synchronous phenomenon, call it what you will. Idly thumbing through last weeks Technology section of the Guardian earlier, I came across a piece by Scott Colvey concerning Virgin Media:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/21/virginmedia.privacy ).

Given that the company happens to be my ISP, I read on & it made for alarming consumption.

I've had cause to speak to Virgin over the phone recently over email issues. The Virgin Media call operative asked me to confirm my password. Unthinkingly, & naively, I provided it over the phone. I didn't think twice about what for me had been a purely technical issue until I saw Colvey's article.

Colvey, too, has Virgin Media as his ISP & was phoned by the company, asking him for his password. Alarm bells well & truly rung, Colvey made inquiries & found that the company has been phoning customers for this information as policy.

Colvey notes that the company appears not to have contravened the Data Protection Act per se. However, it could certainly be said that Virgin Media has acted against the spirit & principle of customer confidentiality.

[BBC Radio 4's "You and Yours" programme today covered the story, including a brief interview with Colvey, & quoted an extremely lame excuse from the company (www.bbc.uk/youandyours/ ).]

Colvey's Guardian piece nails Virgin Media's flimsy defence to the wall of derision thus:

"When asked to explain the company's policy, Virgin Media said that many major organisations call customers and ask them to confirm their passwords as part of Data Protection Act compliance procedures. This review is, we're told, an ongoing process that could involve any customer at any time. The chap at Virgin Media cited his own bank, NatWest, as an example of another major organisation that does this.

"We called NatWest: it doesn't do this. Indeed, NatWest's advice for customers answering unexpected callers is handy: 'Be cautious if you're asked for peronal information. Remember that they have instigated the call and should already know who you are. NatWest will never ask for your security number or password.' Virgin Media, take note. (Spokesman, check your bank account.)"

I'll be posting the Guardian story to Virgin Media in the expectation of receiving a more plausible & credible explanation than that given to Colvey & the BBC. If the reply is as poor as the one already given, well, the blogosphere's an influential force, isn't it?

Walk On, Walk On, Right Out Of The Pub, Mate

A Texan drawl is not often heard in inner city Liverpool pubs. However, in a pub full of Scouse accents it would be just a little conspicuous. So it was at approximately 6.00pm on Saturday afternoon, an hour after Liverpool's 3-2 victory over Middlesborough, that a smiling American entered the Sandon pub.
Tom Hicks Jnr., son of you know who, thought it would be a bright idea to talk to the fans in a pub whose history is entwined with that of Liverpool FC. If it was an attempted PR stunt, it backfired. Badly.
Whether by accident or design, the Liverpool Echo's dedicated correspondent for the club, Tony Barrett, was there to witness the moment that Texan corporate-speak ran straight up against Scouse ire:
http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0500liverpoolfc/0100news/tmheadline=tom-hicks-jnr-how-it-turned-nasty-in-the-sandon%26method=full%26objectid=20521287%26siteid=50061-namepage.html .
Barrett notes that the "lying bastard" chants directed at Hicks Jnr. aren't warranted, yet points out that "as his father's representative at Anfield on Saturday it borders on the inexplicable that he could have expected anything other than the 'welcome' he was given..........It was ugly and it was nasty. And, perhaps worst of all it was all so avoidable."
Initially, it seeemed as though a penchant for close questioning was to be evident in the pub:
"One fan took it upon himself to press Hicks junior on what was going on and interrogated him Paxman-style for a full five minutes."
However, the mood in the pub soon became aggresive. Somebody spat in Hicks' direction (classy) & a glass of lager was thrown over him (think of the ale, lads!). Whereupon the minders rushed him out of a now seething pub & into his SUV which sped away.
It should go without saying that the actions of some idiots should be condemned. However, Hicks was either dangerously naive, or cynically trying to engineer a situation which would reflect badly on Liverpool fans. If it was the latter, he warrants as much execration as the less than sober individuals wearing red in the Sandon pub.

Gate-Crashing The Party

Much wailing & vitriol emanates from liberals in the US over Ralph Nader's decision to enter the Presidential race (http://thecaucusblogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/nader-to-run-again/ ).
It's taken as fact that Nader's candidacy in 2000 robbed Gore of the election. Ridiculous. Quite apart from the shennanigans in Florida, where Dubya's brother, as Governor, fixed the vote in that state, the reality is that Gore simply couldn't convince enough voters that he had what it took.
Backers of Barack Obama will spin the line to the media that Nader is a spoiler, even a fifth columnist. Such is their vacuous stance; Obama's speeches are replete with platitudes, truisms & feel-good rhetoric. He is policy-lite & personality-laden. He is a more progressive candidate than Hillary Clinton, but that's not saying much.
Nader represents a large proportion of US voters who are continually frustrated that their philosophy & economic stance is dismissed by the Democrats as dangerously left-wing. He has every right to stand.

A Sclerotic Stalinism

This week's news that Fidel Castro is to step down as President of Cuba was greeted predictably by the US & Europe. The gloating over a relic from the Cold War being forced to acknowledge his own mortality was matched by a sepia-tinted glow of nostalgia from those for whom the fall of the Berlin Wall was a disaster. It was instructive to see George Galloway wax lyrical on Newsnight.
A more nuanced & considered take on the fading force of el Commandante came from Tony Karon on his Rootless Cosmopolitan blog (http://tonykaron.com/2008/02/20/the-guilty-pleasure-of-fidel-castro/ ).
The sneaking regard which many Latin American leaders have for Castro (even left of centre figures such as Lula in Brazil & Bachelet in Chile see him as a symbol of independence from the US) is rooted in the perception that "Castro personifies nothing as such as defiance of the Monroe Doctrine, by which the US had defined the continent as its background, reserving the right to veto, by force, anything it didn't like. Get a Mexican conservative politician drunk in a discreet setting, and you'll probably discover a closet Castro fan."
Tony highlights the irony that had Castro held multi-party elections at any stage in Cuba over the last 50 years (an insistent US demand) the Communist Party would most likely have won most of the votes.
Moreover, there was a blind belief among many older Cubans, as well as the Party faithful, that Castro could be trusted to adapt to the end of the Soviet Union & its economic subsidies. How? In what way? Reasons & answers were vague & sparse, rhetoric winning out over reasoned debate.
The tragic truth is that, Washington neo-cons & Miami nostalgists notwithstanding, the Stalinist mindset has been the Cuban revolution's greatest weakness.

Fiction & Fact

Taking as his cue Jonathan Margolis' volte-face in yesterday's Daily Mirror, Liverpool-born journalist & author Paul Du Noyer pens an upbeat, though mercifully hype-free piece for Liverpool Confidential:
http://www.liverpoolconfidential.com/index.asp?Sessionx=IpqiNwT1KaqiNwF6IHqi&realname=Reputation,_reputation,_reputation .
Du Noyer touches on the, ahem, haphazard start to this year of culture (Ringo's paean of praise, which went down like a wannabe WAG in a bar full of footballers) & the civic chaos which preceded 2008, & seeped through into the year itself like a nasty-looking stain.
Du Noyer's missive does contain a few inevitable truisms, but is no worse for that. Most encouragingly, though, he urges Merseyside to respond to unwarranted jibes & hatchet-jobs in the right manner:
"This city is different to other cities, in good ways and bad, and difference will always polarise opinions. Deep down, I think, Liverpudlians enjoy their city's 'exceptionalism'. We don't want to be just like Norwich. But standing out gets you noticed, and to be noticed is to risk attack. If that's the price of our city's individuality, I'd say it's worth paying. We should refute the lies that are told, but do it calmly and with confidence. Let us not seem shrill, defensive or thin-skinned."
Let that be the approach for the rest of 2008.

Act Of Contrition

Being an atheist, I'm not exactly familiar with the actual wording of the line in the Bible about a sinner repenting. However, it came to mind when I was alerted to a piece in today's Daily Mirror by Jonathan Margolis. Name ring any bells? Nope? Let me explain.
Margolis was commissioned to write a feature piece for the Sunday Times in 1993 on the city of Liverpool in the weeks after the murder of James Bulger. However, it was the article's headline rather than its specific content which caused controversy:
"Self Pity City".
The title has morphed into a phrase which has become a shorthand dismissal of Merseyside, & a jibe to be thrown at Scousers. Coming just four years after Hillsborough & the Sun's lies, its effect locally was incendiary. That another Murdoch paper should come up with the headline was also noted.
Margolis has always claimed that he wasn't responsible for the headline. That's true. Journalists don't normally compose a title for their articles, that's the job of the sub editor. The sub editor in question was Simon Heffer, the same Simon Heffer who penned the Spectator editorial on Liverpool & its people in the wake of Ken Bigley's murder in 2004, as a result of which then Tory leader Michael Howard ordered the magazine's editor, Boris "buffoon" Johnson, to make an aplologetic (&, quite frankly, pathetic) trip up here.
Be that as it may, Margolis comes across as a zealous convert to a cult:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/02/19/jonathan-margolis-liverpool-i-love-you-89520-20324085/ .
Take this eruption of exultation:
"To be honest, all the stuff I'd read about urban regeneration and the fact that Liverpool had been crowned European Capital of Culture 2008 sounded like so much boring official-ese.
"But what I discovered here is utterly stunning. Trust me, they're building one of the modern wonders of the world beside that grey, choppy old Mersey.
"So much for Self Pity City, for shellsuits, for 'calm down, calm down' and jokes about Scousers nicking your hubcaps. What's happening here is real.
"And it's going to take the world by surprise."
Steady on, Jonathan! Any more of that purple prose & you'll be headhunted by the Culture Company!

Sub Prime Salaries

One of the most risible claims that the city of Liverpool is booming concerns the mania for retail developments. Liverpool One, a major feature of the Big Dig, is due to open later this year:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7252658.stm .
According to the BBC report, 5,000 jobs will be created by the development & the city council is keen to see as many local successful applicants as possible:
"Job hunters can now register at the Shop for Jobs premises on Lord Street for upcoming work in the retail, leisure and tourism sectors."
In other words, low-paid, insecure jobs. As the ramifications from the credit crunch inexorably roll out further, these are the sort of jobs which go to the wall first.
Ah, what's this? There's also a golden nugget from Warren Bradley, city council leader (though not for much longer):
"The real regeneration of Liverpool will be seen in the opportunities it offers to the people who live and work here."
Fine words......from one of the clowns responsible for the Matthew Street debacle.

When The Spirit Of Shankly Needs To Be Summoned

They'll need this man's spirit tonight

This evening's home tie against Inter Milan is of pivotal importance. Against the current backdrop at the club, it's no surprise that passions are running high, too high with some.

Graffiti was left at the club's Melwood training ground early today, expressing direct dissatisfaction with the present state of affairs:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2008/02/19/in-pictures-vandals-in-graffiti-attack-on-liverpool-s-melwood-training-ground-89520-20324769/ .

"Play ur [sic] best team for f***'s sake" & "[David] Moores greedy bastard" were just two of the carefully considered bon mots.

It goes without saying, of course, that such graffiti is of no help to anyone. However, the anger is to be expected.

I hope I'm wrong, but I can't see anything other than a comfortable Inter win, 2-0 probably.

Gimme Some Truth, Yoko!

Lennon with The Quarrymen manager, Nigel Walley on Lime Street in 1958

Yoko Ono is still an easy target for satirists, columnists & bloggers due to her idiosyncratic ways. However, it needs to be said that she has often been her own worst enemy. For a woman who claims to be media-savvy, some of her gestures & pronouncements really have served as the red rag to the media's bull. Last year she opened a Peace Centre in Iceland. Quite what this building is supposed to do is anyone's guess. I'm sure the Icelandic people are a little bemused, too.

Most recently, Ono gave her blessing for NASA to beam "Across The Universe" into space, the notion being that any alien life-forms out there will receive this message as a peace offering from our planet.

The phrase, "away with the fairies" springs to mind.

Ono has carefully & assiduously cultivated an image of her late husband as a latter day saint, a paragon of principle, a cross between the Dalai Lama & John the Baptist. In short, the sort of figure that Bono aspires to be. Today's music blog on the Guardian notes this with a raised eyebrow:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/02/the_disneyfication_of_john_len.html .

As the blog's author, David Bennum, notes, "Lennon was a great artist, but his supposed insights into humankind --let alone the universe-- were often banal to the point of fatuity."

Lennon was at his best when he was being a sarcastic bastard; his caustic wit was sometimes priceless. Far better to remember that side of him rather than the hippy-dippy, stoned millionaire who whined, "Imagine no possessions".

Desafortunado

Time to go?

Sorry, Rafa, I've stuck by you all along. Throughout the mendacious strategems employed by Gillett & Hicks, I've taken your side in highlighting the farce that now prevails inside the Anfield Boardroom.

Alas no more. Saturday's FA Cup defeat at home to Barnsley lifted the scales from my eyes. It also gives the owners preciously needed ammunition:

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2257618,00.html .

Andy Hunter's piece touches upon the debacle brought about in the last year & reveals a nest of vipers turning on each other at boardroom level:

"Gillett is understood to be receptive to the idea of a quick profit on his 12-month investment but Hicks is continuing to make exorbitant demands of the Dubai company, not only financial, and remains a major obstacle to any serious business discussions with DIC."

Thanks for Istanbul, Rafa, but the time is fast approaching when you'll have to admit that you can't take the club any further. Adios, compadre.

A Teacher's Travails

Many people I know will be pleased that Gillian Gibbons, the Aigburth teacher who was imprisoned in Sudan last year after the "Mohammed" teddy bear farce, is to take up a post at an English speaking school just outside the Chinese capital, Beijing:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7248405.stm .

Word of advice, Gillian: don't name any teddy bears after Chairman Mao.

Editor's Exit

Having been a subscriber to the New Statesman (http://www.newstatesman.co.uk ) since 2005, I'm not altogether surprised by the news that its editor John Kampfner has resigned:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/feb/13/pressandpublishing1 .
It was inevitable that, sooner or later, Geoffrey Robinson, the magazine's owner & Labour MP, would cease being a benevolent benefactor & morph into a malevolent manipulator.
The usual platitudes & PR buzz words have been uttered by owner & editor alike. However, according to the Guardian's report:

"A spokeswoman for the New Statesman denied that Kampfner had been sacked.
'It was by mutual agreement, a stepping down. It was not a sacking,' the spokeswoman said."

Something about the wording of that statement suggests a desperate attempt to put the best possible spin on Kampfner's departure.
The report digs a little for some background & unearths this nugget:

"MediaGuardian.co.uk understands that there had been longstanding tension between Kampfner and Robinson, a Labour MP, over the magazine's budget.
One source with knowledge of the magazine said the departure had been on the cards since Christmas, after the relationship between Robinson and Kampfner broke down.
'Geoffrey thinks too much money has been spent on redesign and marketing for too little return,' the source said."

The bald reality for political weeklies like the NS is that there will always be a ceiling on circulation figures. The magazine's recent sales had peaked at around the 30,000 mark, & are now declining, though that shouldn't necessarily be a negative reflection on Kampfner, who took over when sales were at 25,000.
The NS has featured some good writers, particularly its US correspondent, Andrew Stephen's dispatches on the Presidential race, & Shazia Mirza's sometimes hilarious column.
However, I recall an interview Kampfner gave to MediaGuardian.co.uk when he assumed the editor's seat in 2005, in which he declared that if Robinson interfered, then "I walk".
Kampfner has now walked, & as a subscriber, I'll be following suit.

From Famine To Finance

BBC Radio 4's "You and Yours" programme today carried an intriguing report on the amount of Irish investment in Liverpool (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/items/06/2008_07_wed.stml ).
The role of the Irish in Liverpool is, of course, well-known to the extent of it being a cliche. However, as the report pointed out, the influx of the Irish during most of the 19th century was seen as adding to the city's social & economic problems. Today sees a 180 degree change in that perception.
One of my great-grandmothers came to Liverpool from Co. Armagh & soon established herself as something of a businesswoman in the city's teeming Irish communities. Despite that, she was subject to the prejudice & hostility which greeted the Irish as a matter of course.
O Tempora, O Mores!

The Futility Of Fighting

There's an overwhelming sense of deja-vu about the decision by Rolls Royce to close their Bootle plant, with the loss of 200 jobs, & the response to it. The company's justification (globalisation, lower labour costs elsewhere, etc.) is pretty much impossible to counter in a world where global capitalism is seen & accepted as the only game in town.
The campaign to save the plant, led by the unions, is laudable. However, I expect it to bite the dust soon. Joe Benton, the local Labour MP, has bleated forlornly about the unfairness of it all for the benefit of the local media.
By all accounts, the government has been drawn into the affair, offering all sorts of sweeteners to the company, but...well, you know the rest.
Rather pathetically, Ian Hernon, Parliamentary reporter for the Liverpool Echo has added his tuppenceworth:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/liverpool-columnists/ianhernon/2008/02/09/benton_will_knuckle_down_for_his_constituents_100252-20456559/ .
Hernon naively laments, "On some occasions the supposed power of the ECHO, the Parliamentary lobby and the Press in general seems to count for little."
This is a consequence of economic reality. Wise up, Mr. Hernon.

Addendum

Even more disorienting for me is a piece in today's Guardian in which Chris Grayling correctly identifies a group of males in society who "lack social skills and a sense of responsibility. They hang around on street corners, and get sucked into crime and anti-social behaviour. They struggle to find worthwhile work, if they are looking for work at all."
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/11/conservatives.television ).
It's woth pointing out that there is nothing new in groups of white working class males who are generally unskilled & have had either a poor education record or a family background whose culture was inimical to educational achievement. Once upon a time, however, such men could be relied upon to do the most basic of manual jobs. Not any more. Most of those jobs died out through a combination of technology & the Thatcher years.
Therefore the males in question are left to their own devices.

Disorienting Dissent

Last week's edition of Question Time (http://www.bbc.co.uk/questiontime ) came from St George's Hall in Liverpool. Disappointingly there was no room on the panel for a local voice. Be that as it may, I was struck by one particular moment in the discussion. New Labour minister for culture, Andy Burnham, attempted to defend the Government's inept handling of the economy since the Northern Rock debacle with a dig at the Tory MP on the panel, Chris Grayling, about the Thatcher years & its effect on Merseyside.
Burnham eulogised about the transformation of the city centre (the "Big Dig"). Grayling cooly responded that you only had to venture a mile out of the city centre to witness levels of poverty which make a mockery of New Labour's much-vaunted desire to tacle the issue. I found myself nodding in agreement with Grayling, then pulled myself up in shock. I had just agreed with a Tory on this issue! Ineed to see my GP.

A Welcome Antidote To Junk Journalism

A day or so after reading Martin Bell's piece, I was transfixed by an edition of Hardtalk on (yes, you've guessed it) BBC News24, in which Stephen Sackur interviewed the Chicago writer & journalist Studs Terkel:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/7226682.stm .
I subsequently emailed the link to Tony Karon, associate editor of Time magazine in New York. Tony is a fellow Liverpool FC fan. More significantly, perhaps, is Tony's writing on current affairs. As a secular Jew, Tony's critical stance on Israel's policies in the Middle East has brought him a lot of crude invective from those in the US & beyond who seem to think that Israel can do no wrong. His blog, Rootless Cosmoplitan, is an excellent read, too (http://www.tonykaron.com/ ).
Terkel is now in his 90s, & his physical frailty was painfully evident in the interview. However, the power of his ideas & observations rendered his physical condition temporarily irrelevant. His belief in the human spirit is an inspiration when mainstream thought renders one jaded.

Here Is The Non-News

"Yea, a Daniel come to judgement!", I thought as I read a piece on the Guardian's Comment is Free pages by former journalist & MP Martin Bell:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/martin_bell/2008/02/the_death_of_news.html .
The reason for my quoting the Bard? It was Bell's excoriating assessment of what passes for journalism in the age of 24/7 news channels, as well as the web.
Bell has a neat, telling label for the sort of guff served up on news bulletins, & the 24 hour news channels in particular: "necro-news". He also notes the obsessive, almost purient coverage given to the McCann story.
One particular passage merits republication here:
"So the journalists retreat to fortified compounds, emerging occasionally for 15 minute 'news raids' into the real world. Hence the growing phenomenon of rooftop journalism, in which crisply dressed performers address their audience in front of the two most famous palm trees in the world. They are in the area but not on the scene. It looks like news and it sounds like news, but bears as much relation to news as fish paste does to caviar."
Brilliantly put, Martin.

Roots Revelation

Every so often I hear an album which captures & couples music's aesthetic appeal with a startling innovation. "Raising Sand", by Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, is the latest addition to that select collection. Expertly produced by long-time Dylan & Costello sidekick, T-Bone Burnett, it harks back to a period when American roots music embraced both the country & blues traditions:
http://www.myspace.com/officialrobertplantalisonkrauss .

Adios Amigo!

Tony Parish (http://www.liverpoolsubculture.blogspot.com/ ) has the latest on the £250,000 pay off which Jason Harborow will pocket as he departs the badly holed vessel that is the Liverpool Culture Company. No doubt he can count his ill-gotten gains at his Spanish hacienda.

Dream On

"I just want to stay out of the blogs"---Tom Hicks on Sportsweek, BBC Radio 5Live, 29/01/08.
Fat chance, "buddy"!

He Doth Protest Too Much

Crashing onto the Guardian's Comment is Free webpage is Warren Bradley, leader of Liverpool City Council. Bradley issues what amounts to little more than a glorified PR handout, the sort of thing which the Liverpool Echo is wont to report as fact:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/warrenbradley/2008/01/mersey_sound_finances.html .
Bradley responds to the finding by the Audit Commission that Liverpool is the worst financially managed local authority in England by penning a puff piece which makes no mention of last year's cancelled Matthew Street festival (surprise, surprise!). He even begins his piece with an invocation of an old, cliched ruse: "When the Liberal Democrats took over from a bankrupt Labour administration in 1998, the city was still reeling from the disasters of Derek Hatton and Militant, when Liverpool's great assets were put in hock to the moneylenders of Zurich."
Ah, yes, the old Militant bogey. Used to work every time criticism was levelled at those guilty of civic misrule. Not any more. Bradley's already in a hole & articles such as this only deepen it.
According to the Guardian's report on the Audit Commission's findings, Paul Clein, a senior Lib Dem councillor in the city, admits that the commissions criticisms are valid:
"[Clein] blamed part of the problem on the cost of Liverpool 'being the European City of Culture this year, which we are funding 60% and has led to people taking their eye off the ball'."
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2248440.00.html )
I wonder who he could have in mind regarding that final remark?

Gissa Job! Go On, I Can Do Two Y'know!

Spare a thought for the former British Prime Minister. So straightened, it seems, are his current financial circumstances that he has been forced to take on a second job just to make ends meet:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7213355.stm .
There's no word on Blair's financial reward for joining Zurich Insurers, but it'll be roughly the same as the £500,000 per annum he now receives from JP Morgan Investment Bank.
It's Cherie I feel sorry for. How's she going to put food on the table when her husband is reduced to working for pin money?

Another Side Of 2008

Local news is today dominated by the experience of BBC 5Live Liverpool-born presenter, Shelagh Fogerty:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7212556.stm .
The presenter had a gun pointed at her while filming in Croxteth, where she grew up. She was also confronted by bottle-wielding & stone-throwing teenagers in Norris Green on Friday.
The fact that she was filming for ITV Tonight With Trevor McDonald is, however, a cause for caveat. ITV's "journalism", as opposed to Channel 4's, is decidedly downmarket &, at times, sensationalist. This is confirmed by the premise of the programme:
"She had been asked to return to the area she grew up in to see how safe she felt walking around after dark."
Presumably, this refers to the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, who recently remarked, much to her spin doctors' alarm, that she felt unsafe in most parts of London after dark.
However, the fact is that a media presence in that part of Liverpool has been met with hostility. Norris Green-born BBC journalist, Winnifred Robinson, was made to feel uneasy as she walked around the area where she was brought up for a BBC Radio 4 documentary late last year. A BBC Newsnight crew, covering the area in the wake of Rhys Jones' murder, was attacked by local youths.
Away from the city centre, this is the sour reality in this year of culture for such parts of Liverpool. There's something about areas such as Norris Green & Croxteth which ensures that gang warfare isn't seen as an abnormal, subcultural phenomenon. Rather, it is viewed as an ineradicable feature of local life. Merseyside Police's claim that there are no no-go areas after dark doesn't stand up to the day-to-day reality.
Given the subcultural stranglehold on districts like Norris Green & Croxteth, it seems depressingly clear that the killers of Rhys Jones will not be given up, the heavy police presence notwithstanding.

An Unwelcome Mersey Sound

This year of culture was bound to throw up developments & arrivals which are deleterious in their impact & import. So it's with disdain that I view the launch of City Talk (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/jan/22/commercialradio.radio ).
The ad campaign focuses on one of the station's presenters, Simon O'Brien, who resigned from BBC Radio Merseyside in June of last year after a taped promo including his comment, "Fuck the government, fuck the planners" was broadcast.
The list of presenters for the City Talk station feature a couple of professional Scousers (Dean Sullivan, Margi Clarke) & some whose Merseyside connections seem tenuous to say the least (Trisha Goddard, Michael Brandon).
The Guardian piece, by John Plunkett, quotes the station's director, Richard Maddock, who states ominously that the ad campaign will be downmarket & sensationalist. The campaign, Maddock says, will "be specifically strong and aim to be thought provoking and to evoke reaction. We are bracing ourselves for some very heated and lively debates."
Scouse shock jocks? The heart sinks. A mental image forms in the mind of a Scouse accent yelling at a microphone, "DO YOU THINK PAEDOPHILES SHOULD BE CASTRATED?! GIVE US A CALL! ARE WE TOO SOFT ON MUGGERS?! CALL US NOW!!!"
It'll make Roger Phillips sound like the World Service.

With A Little Help From His Friends (& Making A Living Out Of It)

Liverpool, I Left You, & Your Name Is Just A Noun

Synthetic outrage is manufactured on BBC Radio Merseyside this lunchtime over Ringo Starr's "anti-Liverpool" cracks on the Jonathan Ross chat show. Wading in with his own stab at civic anguish is Liverpool Echo columnist & cultural commentator, Joe Riley:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/our-view/2008/0121/starr-falls-from-lofty-position- .
Riley bleats, "Anyone expecting a glimpse of the cheeky, chirpy Beatles' drummer of old was to be sorely disappointed."
Anyone actually expecting that is gullible with a capital "G".
Ringo got £35,000 in "expenses" from the council taxpayers of Liverpool for his wobbly warbling. Starr openly admitted it was business.
My beef doesn't lie with a Los Angeles-based millionaire turning up just because he was he got lucky in the 60s. Instead, the shambolic farce masquerading as the opening ceremony on the Friday evening should have focused on today's Liverpool music scene. By all means, feature the Fab Four's legacy, but it would have been a statement of intent for the city to give today's acts the sort of exposure which a sad, semi-forgotten figure from the past received.

Merseyside Maligned?

Although there's a danger of navel-gazing (the last thing 2008 should be about), Roy Greenslade, on his Media Guardian blog, raises the valid question of an anti-Liverpool bias in the London-based media:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/greenslade/2008/01/liverpool_suffers_metropolitan.html .
Greenslade quotes the Independent on Sunday's readers' editor, Michael Williams, who posed the question, "Is the metropolitan media biased against Liverpool?"
Williams answers his own question by commenting that there is:
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article3353634.ece .
Greenslade agrees there is a bias, but not for the reasons posited by Williams (Liverpool is not geographically placed as an ideal stopping-off point), & speculates on the "Scouse Git" persona before leaving the question open.
As I've noted on the comments section to Greenslade's post, it's clear that Liverpool is projecting itself to an international audience, via the Web. That's not a conscious snub to the rest of the UK. Rather, it's a realisation that people outside the UK are not as likely to be familiar with the same old cliches, myths & stereotypes.

Sexual Politics

Believe it or not, there is a world outside Liverpool this year, & it's important to remember that.
The US primaries leave me both intrigued & baffled. Intrigued because of the detail & shameless chicanery of each campaign, & baffled due to the complete absence of policy; whether it's Republican or Democrat, there is a vacuum when it comes to issues. Candidates are paraded like catwalk models, but without the originality. Vacuous phrases which could mean anything to anyone are met with appreciative whoops from handpicked audiences ("change for our future", "we can do better", that sort of guff). There are many political commentators on this side of the Atlantic, of course, who say that the UK is heading pellmell down the same highway. Which is true: what do you expect when the mainstream parties battle for the "centre" & pay obeisance to free market capitalism?
I've already expressed my views on Hillary Clinton's "progressivism". As for Barak Obama, he looks good, speaks well & gives the impression that he represents a change, not just in US politics, but the Democrat party. However, close examination of his speeches reveals a penchant for glib soundbites, feel-good generalities & content-lite rhetoric.
As for John Edwards, he's certainly made the right noises about the obscene excesses of Wall Street while Main Street suffers in the sub-prime fallout. However, lectures about the iniquities of the market from a millionaire lawyer sound a little strange. It's like listening to Madonna criticise celebrity culture.
Be that as it may, a novel take on the Republican side of the fence was provided by Sasha Abramsky yesterday:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sasha_abramsky/2008/01/flirting_with_politics.html .
The electoral coalition that the Republicans have succesfully built up over the last 30 years or so is appearing to unravel. The economic conservatives' uneasy alliance with the social conservatives is beginning to buckle partly because of the alliance's obvious fault lines, & partly due to the economic crisis facing the US (& the rest of us).
Abramsky is the first political observer I've come across who cites the concerns of sex workers at a Nevada brothel as a barometer of the changing situation. Somehow, I can't see Toynbee, Kettle, Ashley, et al following suit in a Soho clip joint.

Online Attrition

After the ignorant, almost juvenile rant from Edward Pearce on the Guardian's Comment Is Free pages last Friday (a post which drew the ire of Scousers & non-Scousers alike, much to the author's consternation, no doubt), the Grauniad decided to give Liverpool writer & journalist Linda Grant a post, replying to Pearce's bile. Taking as my cue the message that comment is, indeed, free, I've been following & participating in both posts with their subsequent responses.
Grant's piece was cogently argued, a spirited defence of the cultural legacy of the city. However, her middle-class origins were acknowledged, not least by the author herself; growing up in Allerton gives you a different sort of Scouse mentality to growing up in Bootle, & not just because of the north-south division to which I referred last year:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/linda_grant/2008/01/the_pool_rules.html .

Linda Grant's piece mentioned self-styled Scouse rapper RiUvEn, whose appearance at the Arena concert on Saturday polarised local opinion. I happen to like a lot of hip-hop & rap, but this kid's supposed attempt at knowing irony falls flat for me; instead of subverting stereotypes, he becomes part of them:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=11818409 .

Meanwhile, Phil Redmond, in a Q & A with Stuart Jeffries in today's Guardian, gilds the lily a little after last weekend's opening events:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2241945,00.html .
Redmond asserts that 2008 won't "be art for the toffs trickling down to the suburbs, but the suburbs taking over the city. The year will not be provided by, or for, those living in yuppie flats at the docks."
Hmm, we'll see about that, won't we, Phil? By the way, hardly anyone I know on Merseyside spits out the word "yuppie" anymore. It's so 80s.
Redmond also claims that Capital of Culture year is already a success. There's nothing like counting your chickens before they hatch, is there?

Open Season On Scousers With The Guardian

After the ill-informed, pitiable rant from Beryl Bainbridge last Friday on Liverpool's culture (or lack of it, she asserted) on the Guardian Unlimited site, its Comment is Free (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/ ) section gives political "commentator", Edward Pearce the chance to hurl some more mud at the city:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/edward_pearce/2008/01/scouse_proud.html .
Pearce opens his ejaculatory spurt of vitriol thus: "OK, Liverpool is European capital of culture and, for a year, we shall hear the razz and witter of glorification. Is there, though, a chance that we might then have a decade of silence about the place?"
Fat chance, Edward. What's your problem? I note from your profile on CiF that you hail from Oldham. You wouldn't be suffering from a case of civic penis envy, would you?
Pearce goes on to sniff: "Liverpool is a prickly, truculent place, best appeased. Accordingly, it enjoys an indulgent, ill-balanced press. There is a feeling that somehow we owe it consolation, that we should make it up to Liverpool for some undefined wrong. That has generated a highly enjoyable culture of victimhood."
Well, yes, it is "prickly" & "truculent" in both good & bad ways. But "best appeased"? There's a disturbing implication there that Scousers are genetically aggressive & to be avoided, don't you think? As for the city enjoying a favourable press, ah yes, I recall all too well the Sun's immaculately balanced coverage of Hillsborough. Then there's the victimhood jibe. It's a cliche which does, alas, have some credence; far too many Scousers for my liking still wallow in a fog of fatalism, intoning their mantra, "There's nothing down for us".
However, it's worth noting that the victim mentality, along with the exponential rise in the use of heroin, was a toxic by-product of the Thatcher years. Edward Pearce, it should be noted, was a Thatcher acolyte. Moreover, Pearce's latest rant doesn't entirely surprise me; I recall a Guardian article he penned a decade or so back in which he suggested the best thing Liverpool could do was fall into the Mersey. Laugh? I nearly subscribed to the Spectator.
CiF pays its contributors for their posts, usually it's around £80, although it can vary; I suspect that Pearce got more due to his "status".
There's a word for the likes of Pearce, but I've always felt that Anglo-Saxon epithets reveal a limited vocabulary.

Their Culture Of Capitalism

These guys only want the best....for themselves

It's saddening beyond words to see the football club I 've supported since my father took me onto the Kop in 1964 descend into a grotesque soap opera. Among the more reflective & revealing pieces in today's papers are two articles in the Independent.

James Lawton (http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/comment/article3339096.ece ) asks, "how do you respect something properly if you don't really understand it?"

In a more investigative vein, Ian Herbert & Nick Harris (http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/comment/article3339106.ece ) disclose, "A provisional contract is believed to have been drawn up with [Juergen] Klinsmann there and then, though it seems to have been a subsequent drift of events--rather than a breakdown in negotiations between the parties--which contributed to Klinsmann not signing it."

If these cowboys ever visit Anfield again (a big IF from what I've heard) their security will have to rival that of their good buddy Dubya.

Redmond's "Scouse Wedding" Strikes Discordant Note

After the cringe-inducing apologia for the city of Liverpool on Friday night, it was to be hoped that the concert at the Liverpool Echo Arena the following night would be an improvement. Not quite, according to most reviews in the national press. Rather than resorting to cheap journalism, the review in Monday's Guardian was refreshingly even-handed:
http://music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,2240237,00.html .
Alex Petredis begins his piece by noting the sardonic amusement of the audience, most of whom had shelled out £50 ($100) for the dubious privilege of being there, at the boast on a giant video screen: "the centre of the creative universe".
The ticket allocation for the event was predictably mired in controversy, with suspicions that the "great & the good", ie., local politicos, PR types, Corporates, etc. bagged the prize seats.
Of equal interest is the subject of Ringo's expenses. Much was made of the fact that he was performing for free, ie., no fee involved. However, the word is that his expenses were met by the Liverpool Culture Company, &, by extension, the city's council tax payers. His expenses are believed to amount to £35,000 ($70,000). Nice deal for his weak warbling ("Liverpool, I left you/But I never let you down").

Aftermath

So, how was it for you? The sporadic live TV coverage given to the Liverpool08 opening ceremony on BBC News 24 revealed a somewhat tawdry affair, despite the best efforts of the BBC reporters to talk it up (since when was the Beeb in the PR business?). At best, I found it cliched. At worst, I found it lacking in any originality. As for Ringo's [mimed] warbling, his dirge served to remind the watching millions why he wasn't given songwriting duties with the Fab Four.

However, there is criticism & there is criticism. One is based on the principled, informed stance of local blogs such as Liverpool Subculture (http://www.liverpoolsubculture.blogspot.com/ ), &, by the way, check out the latest nuggets unearthed by Tony Parrish from last night, & there is criticism based on ignorance, snobbery & a loathing for one's birthplace. An example of this can be found in a sour & curmudgeonly post on the Guardian's Arts blog by Liverpool-born writer Beryl Bainbridge:
http://www.blogs.guardian.co.uk/theatre/2008/01/liverpools_glory_days_are_over.html .
It begins forebodingly, "The reason I can't muster any enthusiasm [for 2008] is because it is no longer 'my Liverpool'."
So why is it no longer Beryl's Liverpool? Simple: change; the passage of time. Oh, & her longtime residence in leafy Hampstead. Where Cilla & Tarby are Professional Scousers, Beryl is a reluctant, perhaps self-denying one.
She goes on to get her civic & cultural history wrong, confusing the separate identities of the Playhouse & the Everyman. For good measure, she goes on to maintain that "ordinary Liverpudlians" don't go to the Phil's classical concerts. This "ordinary Liverpudlian" gives the lie to that. Bainbridge also asserts that the middle class have mostly left the city, a point which will be news to the residents of Woolton, Mossley Hill, Allerton & other petit-bourgeois enclaves in the south end of the city. It could also be noted in response to Bainbridge's generalisation that the residential developments in the city centre are certainly not marketed at a C2 demographic.
Bainbridge's malevolent missive concludes with two sentences which encapsulate her rank inconsistency & make her diatribe all the more risible: "But all this is only the opinion of somebody who left Liverpool 40 years ago. I wish them the best of luck with their celebrations."
If, however, it is an attempt at sarcasm, it has all the impact of a eunuch in a brothel.

A Civic Apologia Begins

Let the CoC up begin. Over to you, Ringo! (BTW, why did you stop doing Thomas the Tank Engine?)

A Belated Postscript

A quick note of thanks for the message left by Stuart Ian Burns in response to my post about the Guardian article bemoaning a perceived paucity of Liverpool blogs. As Stuart points out, the writer probably Googled "Liverpool weblogs" instead of "Liverpool blogs" & lazily left it at that.
Stuart is the author of the Feeling Listless blog (http://feelinglistless.blogspot.com/ ).
I note from his blog that he was one of those present at Tate Liverpool for the Turner Prize ceremony. Of course, I was rather cutting about the affair, commenting that the only Scousers present had probably jumped a cab from Lark Lane. Turns out that Stuart resides near Sefton Park.
[Cue the sound of tumbleweed blowing across a desolate & deserted town in Arizona.]
Sorry if I inadvertently reinforced steretypical views about Liverpool 17, Stuart. As a Bootle resident I know all too well about stereotypes & distorted perceptions.

The Chickens Come Home To Roost

In just a few days' time a nervous & probably fortified Ringo Starr will bash on a drum kit at the top of St. Georges Hall. This Pythonesque act will help inaugurate the official start to 2008.
However, an endangered ex-Beatle is not the most pressing & serious matter facing those "organisers" of Capital of Culture year.
The shambolic, inept & laughable run-up to this point is briefly referred to in today's Guardian:
http://guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jan/09/localgovernment.regeneration .
The article appears to give city council leader Warren Bradley an easy ride with soft questions, judging by his stock responses.
The real meat in the piece, however, is the admission that the conflicting premises of 2008 could be discerned on day one:

"According to Mark Featherstone-Witty, chief executive of Liverpool's Institute of Performing Arts (Lipa), many of the problems stemmed from an inability to separate the cultural programme from local politics. The Liverpool Culture Company (LCC) was formed, but with around 65% of its funding and most of its staff coming from the local authority, independence was always unlikely. 'The city council produced the chimera of separateness, but that's all it was. That was the first fundamental mistake,' says Featherstone-Witty."

Monetising Misery

I've refrained from commenting on the case of Madeleine McCann, still to be found after her disappearance last year for all the usual reasons. No one, of course, can imagine what her parents have been through. The disappearance of a child is always a horrendous & distressing affair.
However, I began to feel uneasy about Kate & Gerry McCann's approach when they formed what amounted to a PR operation; the appearance on TV of smooth, articulate spin merchants jarred when viewed in the context of the case. Human tragedy was being cheapened by presentational approach. When it was reported that the operation was referred to as Team McCann, I began to wonder about the priorities of the parents. The case of their missing daughter was being turned into a brand. To the world of McDonalds, Microsoft, Starbucks, et al could be added "Find Maddie", a new item for the consumer's attention. Moreover, the Daily Express, when not peddling the latest Diana conspiracy, reproduced Madeleine's photograph on its front page with a regularity which owed everything to circulation figures & nothing to journalistic endeavour.
Today's news that the McCann's story is to be commited to celluloid marks a new low:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2237215,00.html .
The Guardian piece quotes Clarence Mitchell, the spokesman for Kate & Gerry McCann:
"If in theory a large film were to be made our lawyers would make sure our commercial interests are protected."
Commercial interests?!
Such thinking does the McCanns no favours at all. In fact, I'd go further: it is sick & perverted to invoke copyright & intellectual property rights when a child has been abducted & the police investigation continues.

Cultural Capital's Credit Crunch

No sooner has 2008 begun than the first icy blasts of financial reality blow in for the city. The news comes in the form of a piece in today's Independent (http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article3300969.ece ).
The city is no different to the rest of Binge Britain. Indeed, the hedonistic side of the Scouse psyche (on full display over the last two weeks) is supposed to make Liverpool "unique" to others. It's a view which, while patronising, does have an element of truth.

Jumping The Gun

Seems I was mistaken in suspecting the identity of the local band which got preferential treatment for the 2006 Matthew Street Festival. Ah well, still nice to know who it really was.

As a necessary corrective to the mayhem & madness which will engulf the streets & bars over the next few hours, I'd recommend the Random Acts Of Reality blog by Tom Reynolds, a London paramedic who will be working this evening (http://randomreality.blogware.com/ ). Tom has promised to update the blog as the night/morning wears on. Good luck, Tom.

The thought that 2008 is just a few hours away is rather sobering in itself. For better or worse, the Capital of Culture madness will swing into action as the clock strikes midnight.

Festival Favours

Tony Parish (http://www.liverpoolsubculture.blogspot.com/ ) relates that the latest inquiry into the Matthew Street fiasco has been kicked into the long grass after allegations that Jason Harborrow, soon to trouser a £250,000 pay-off from the city council, pulled a few strings to ensure a local act got a prime slot at the 2006 festival:

"It is alleged that Jase abused his position and authority as chief executive of the Culture Company to unfairly ensure that the band were given the gig.

"A second senior city council official was also being investigated after he was implicated in bringing pressure to bear on staff to make sure that the band appeared.

"It is alleged that both Jason Harborrow and the senior official intervened to make sure the band appeared."

Tony notes that local acts at the 2006 festival had to go through a vetting procedure, widely viewed as exacting, by an independent panel. However, the band at the centre of the allegations were seemingly not put through this.

A quick Google search for "Matthew Street Festival 2006" produces this webpage from the BBC Liverpool site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2006/07/28/music_matthewst_feature.shtml .

Tony hasn't yet named the band, but the link seems to do just that.

[The Lightning Seeds' frontman, Ian Broudie, started out in the Liverpool punk band, Big In Japan. One of his bandmates was a certain Jayne Casey, now one of the bigwigs involved in the Culture Company. Among the Lightning Seeds' hit singles in the 90s was the aptly named "Lucky You".]

Blogless?

Is There Anybody Out There?

It's always a little disheartening, though not exactly astonishing, when the so-called serious press is guilty of sloppy journalism over Merseyside. One such instance was to be found in last week's Guardian in an article on the growth of blogs in UK towns & cities:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/dec/20/blogging.internet .

According to the piece's author, Guy Clapperton, the blogging scene in Liverpool is slight:

"Not surprisingly," he sneers, "the city is characterised by a plethora of footie blogs pretending to be city blogs."

Clapperton's piece does go on to mention the Liverpool Subculture blog (http://www.liverpoolsubculture.blogspot.com/ ), but no others in a dismissively short paragraph. No mention of Liverpool Blogs (http://liverpoolblogs.blogspot.com/ ) nor the blogs featured on the Art In Liverpool website (http://www.artinliverpool.co.uk/ ).

There are many things in an unready state for 2008, but the city's burgeoning blogging scene isn't one of them.

Una Probabilita Per Vendetta? *

Callaghan makes it 2-0

With this week's Champions League draw pairing Liverpool & Inter Milan for the first time since their meeting in 1965, it's worth recalling that tie & the way in which Inter bribed the Spanis referee, Snr. Ortiz de Mendebil for the second leg at the San Siro:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3tyivliverpool-v-inter-milan-1965-europesport .

Also: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=y_t3z_5R90M .

(With thanks to http://www.shankly.com/ for reproduction of the image .)

* A Chance For Revenge?

Before The Farce Begins

Hands up if you've f***ed things up!

Ahead of the institutional cock-up that will be 2008 (thank you, Tony Parrish, you've made the council, the Culture Company & the Echo look like complete clowns, keep it up: http://www.liverpoolsubculture.blogspot.com/ ), there is some cheering information about the arts scene locally in today's Observer (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2231521,00.html ).

The emerging young artists, musicians & others involved in the city's arts scene have a take on 2008 which refreshingly steers clear of the old cliches & Scouse stereotypes. Indeed, some of them have settled in Liverpool, enabling them to have a fresh perspective on the forthcoming year as well as their general perceptions of the city. One or two have a timely dig at the farce concocted by the council & their partners in crime at the Culture Company.

With Jason Harborrow retiring (yet again) to his Spanish hacienda before his final pay off at the council tax payers expense & Messrs. Storey & Bradley finally facing the music for their culpability, it's heartening to know that the city's arts scene is getting on with its own projects & not allowing the civic chaos to affect their own work.

Acting On Impulse

Purely by chance, I walked into one of the departments at work on Monday afternoon where a radio was tuned into a local station. The presenter spoke about a Springsteen gig at Old Trafford, Manchester, next May. My ears pricked up in an almost feral way. Texts pinged back & forth, my mobile phone ringing regularly also, the Liverpool FC ringtone causing more than a little irritation to the Evertonians in the place. It's now booked. It wasn't cheap, of course (there's no other act for whom I'd part with £60, thanks for the booking fee, Ticketmaster). Still, after all the manufactured hype about the McCartney concert at Anfield, it is nice to know that I'll be attending a gig rather than a tiresome exercise in Beatle nostalgia & parochial excess.
If the comedians running the Liverpool Culture Company had been doing their job properly, they might, just might, have secured this gig for the city. Instead, the 60s are re-heated & served up yet again for local consumption.

The Emperor's New Clothes

Crashing in from work on Monday evening, I switched on Channel 4 News. Among the lead stories was a live piece from Liverpool's Albert Dock. The programme's highly cerebral & urbane arts correspondent, Nicholas Glass, looking uncomfortable in a to-camera piece, explained that this year's Turner Prize was being held at the venue to mark 2008. My heart sank. It sank even further when Warren Bradley, leader of the city council appeared to give his views on the contenders. Will Bradley be appearing as a pundit at the McCartney concert next summer, I wonder?

Anyway, it soon transpired that, save for a couple of ego-fuelled local politicos & arty types who had fetched up from Lark Lane, the audience was bussed up from London; the poor lambs, having to endure a December evening in the provinces!

As for the winner, Mark Wallinger, well, I suppose it all made sense to him as he videoed himself in a bear costume at a Berlin gallery. Furthermore, if it had a connection to the anti-war movement, as he claimed, well, good on the guy.

However, much as I like to retain an open mind on cultural persuits, I have to say that the Turner Prize has become a byword for inane, irrelevant, juvenile bullshit over the years (remember the electric light being switched on & off, a few years' ago?).

I have a suggestion for Mark. Why not take his costume to Khartoum, parade around the Sudanese capital & tell everyone that his name's Mohammed?

Lifting The Lid?

Liverpool has always produced comedians. Here's two more.

Returning, as we must, to the ongoing farce that will be 2008, Tony Parish, has unearthed another gem (http://liverpoolsubculture.blogspot.com/ ) which the Echo will probably report as an exclusive sometime next month.
After the pathetically transparent attempt by Warren Bradley, Jason Harborrow, et al, to use Lee Forde as the scapegoat for the Matthew Street fiasco, the covering of arses is on a scale last seen at your average public school. However, the Subculture blog notes that Bradley, Harborrow & others knew in February of this year that there were real difficulties over the festival. In a series of emails between the relevant parties dating back to this point, it was acknowledged that the festival would be starved of resources & that the "Big Dig" in the city would make the staging of the event a near impossibility. This contradicts Bradley's oft-repeated claim that the first he knew of the situation was in July.

A week or so back, it seemed that the BBC was going to investigate the 2008 fiasco:
http://www.how-do.co.uk/rumours-and-conjecture/north-west-media-rumours/panorama-to-investigate-'botched%92-preparations-for-liverpool-08?200711141345/ .
However, hopes were dashed this week, according to the same source:
http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-broadcasting/panorama-admits-researching-liverpool-08%2c-but-denies-programme-in-production-200711211389/ .
How-Do reported, "It is thought that the content of the programme was set to focus on the numerous well-documented 'hiccups' that have occurred on the road to Liverpool's highly prized Capital of Culture status. One insider noted that city officials were 'justifiably nervous' about the apparent plans."
According to the piece, Paul Rasmussen, a spokesman for the programme, was initially wary of saying much about the claim. However, he did venture, "We did do some initial research on a programme about regeneration, which would have been linked to Liverpool 08."
Panorama is a mere shadow of the programme it was in previous decades. However, it would have been nice to see the spotlight turned on the machinations, chicanery, spin & mind-blowing incompetence which has characterized the Liverpool Culture Company (http://liverpool08.com/ ).
The sigh of relief emanating from Liverpool 08's corporate sponsors will be audible at Jason Harborrow's Spanish hacienda.

Jaded Jingoism & Flaccid Facism

Aside from picking up my winnings on a £5 bet on Croatia to beat England last night (generous odds of 9/2, thank you very much), I've taken little interest in the fall-out; I've said before that I'm too conscious of my Liverpool Irish background to wave the Union flag, bellow a monotonous drone of an anthem in praise of an institution I oppose & display utter disrespect for "foreigners". On a purely footballing level, there's a long, earnest & measured debate to be held on why England failed. On a non-footballing level, I'll simply say that it's always nice to see the Johnny Bullshitters get their racist prejudices rubbed in the brown matter. Next summer's European Championships will be worth watching; the best of a continent's football & a complete absence of lagered-up louts who laughably see & style themselves as an army. Mercifully, club football returns this weekend, its cosmopolitan character a welcome antidote to the sterile postures of the last few days.

King Of America?

Alas, poor Declan, alack; once upon a time you seemed to be the only big name UK artist to survive the late 70s New Wave period with serious credibility (the Clash had their moments, but failed to sustain their momentum).

Costello's truly cringeworthy rendition of "Happy Birthday" to Hillary Clinton in New York last month followed closely on his appearance in a TV ad in the US for Lexus cars ( I have both to hand, but won't dignify them with the relevant YouTube links ).

Anyway, it seems that Costello has assumed the airs & graces of his namesake (Elvis, not Bud) with his ridiculously regal stance: http://www.nme.com/news/elvis-costello/32392 .

In the original Mojo interview, Costello cites his reception at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005. However, the previous February, I saw Costello at Liverpool's Royal Court Theatre, playing to a rapt & packed audience (he even jokingly dedicated "[I Don't Wanna Go To Go] Chelsea" to Steven Gerrard).

Perhaps he sees himself as the second Lennon, comfortably based in Manhattan. On this side of the Atlantic, however, his remarks evoke memories of Rod Stewart hopping across to New York with Britt Ekland.

I hope you're happy now, Elvis.

Nothing But The Same Old Story?

The Liverpool most residents know

The Liverpool most tourists know

Before the Liverpool Culture Company, aided & abetted by their allies, Trinity Mirror, try to persuade us that Merseyside will be transformed into Disneyland on the Mersey by 2008, it's necessary to innoculate oneself against such bullshit.

Perhaps one vaccine has arrived today in the form of a report on the BBC's own website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7084673.stm .

It relates, "The think tank Policy Exchange said Liverpool and another 18 cities and towns, including Warrington, are not catching up with the rest of England.

"The Labour Government had been 'well-intentioned' but 'successful towns are becoming more successful, poorer towns are becoming less so', the report said."

The article goes on to say: "Local Government Minister John Healey rejected the claims, saying the economic performance of six of England's eight largest cities had improved since 1997."

Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? After all, it's his job to bang the drum for "the provinces", as they were once patronisingly called. So, Healey's brief, it's valid to say, involves a good deal of PR.

Healey said he found it "alarming" that the think tank report had come to its finding. Does he mean "alarming" as in inaccurate, or as in "shit, we've been dropped in it by some intellectual's candour!"?

To try & get a little more context on this story, I visited the Policy Exchange website (http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/ ).

It should be noted that Policy Exchange describes itself as "the UK's leading centre-right thinktank".

Aha, the picture's getting a little clearer. The Right (let's not bother with the media savvy "centre-right" tag) has long had an approach to areas like Merseyside which could be seen as, at best, benign neglect, or, at worst, outright hostlity. The first approach was voiced by then Tory Chancellor Geoffrey Howe in 1981, when he recommended that the Thatcher Government's policy on Merseyside in the wake of the Toxteth riots should be one of "managed decline". The second approach manifested itself in the Tories' use of unelected law lords to bar the 47 Liverpool Labour councillors from office in 1987.

The report's author, Dr. Oliver Marc Hartwich, is, perhaps predictably, vague on detail:

"While we should not give up on urban policy, much of the £30bn spent in the last decade appears to have had no effect. Britain needs to consider policies that will make it easier for people to work in places that have high productivity and therefore offer high wages. Urban policies should provide towns and cities with incentives to grow, prevent ghost towns from appearing, and give towns and cities much more freedom to decide how to use regeneration money."

Couple of morsels to feast on here: So, areas known for high productivity also offer high wages, do they? That'll be news in the Asian sweatshops. Ghost towns should be prevented, eh? It is in the nature of global capitalism to leave ghost towns in its wake; look at the area around Detroit in the US, where the decline of the car industry has had that social & economic result. Towns & cities should be able to decide how regeneration money is spent in their areas. Fine. Just as long as the decisions aren't taken by locally elected representatives who start to question the "logic" of market forces.

Back to your ivory tower, Dr. Hartwich.

Smiling All The Way To The Bank

Gillett: "They do say it's only a game, Bill."
Hicks: "Suckers!"

Walk On, Walk On, With Cash In The Bank

Talking of things you're unlikely to read in Trinity Mirror's titles, today's Guardian carried a piece by Andy Hunter, ironically once a Daily Post football correspondent, about the real cost of the George Gillett/Bill Hicks reign at Liverpool FC:
http://football.guardian.co.uk/championsleague200708/story/0,,2206007,00.html .
It turns out that Gillett & Hicks are seeking a £500m loan to finance the new stadiun at Stanley Park (the cost having spiralled to £400m), as well as refinancing the £298m loan they secured from the Royal Bank of Scotland with which to purchase the club. One paragraph, in particular, from Hunter's piece is both damning & daunting to the city's taxpayers, not just the club's fans:
"The Americans intended to borrow from Goldman Sachs in a deal arranged by Liverpool's financial advisor, Robert Tillis, until the financiers responded to the global credit crunch by asking the sports tycoons to invest more of their own money into the refinancing package. With his employers reluctant to do so, Tillis has held talks with other financial institutions, including Wachovia and Morgan Stanley. The deal is yet to be finalised but, given current interest rates, the Americans are likely to be refinancing under worse terms than they received from RBS."
As well as shining a light on murky & opaque dealings, the article makes mention of the credit crunch, a phenomenon which has brought the global banking system to a juddering halt, & which has shaken the traders on Wall St. out of their triumphalist mindset about global capitalism.

Money For Nothing

I've refrained from commenting on the decision to stage next year's MTV Europe Awards in Liverpool (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7070936.stm ) mainly because it's little more than a further vanity exercise for the Culture Company (whether Jason Harborrow returns to the city from his Spanish hacienda for the occasion remains to be seen).
The much vaunted aim of the chancers, charlatans & third-rate spivs in charge of 2008 for the year to feature the best that the city's cultural talents has to offer sits uncomfortably with this rather unneccessary addition to the calendar. If the Awards could be adapted to showcase local unsigned acts before a global TV audience, I'd be all for it.
However, we all know that it won't be anything of the sort. Most likely, it will offer the most cursory of nods to You Know Who's musical legacy before grinding on with homogenized, formulaic pap. It will also amount to little more than yet another stopping-off point for the usual suspects (bling-obsessed rappers, crooning soul boys, emoting divas, screeching banshees, etc.).
The event will take place in the city's newly-built Arena, a venue which will bear the name of the Liverpool Echo Arena, although as the Liverpool Subculture blog has been pointing out (http://liverpoolsubculture.blogspot.com/ ), the terms of this apparent sponsorship deal are shrouded in an Autumn mist rolling in off the Mersey.
As Tony Parrish has noted (great work, BTW, Tony, keep it going!), expect Trinity Mirror, the publisher of the Echo & Daily Post, to be fawning & sychophantic in its coverage of the Culture Company.

A Welcome Return

Some good news for a change. The Liverpool Freethinking Festival is back after the success of last year's event (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/freethinking/2007/ ) .
As with last year, there seems enough to get your teeth into.

Less Than Zero

As I remarked earlier this month, Elvis Costello was lined up to appear at Hillary Clinton's 60th birthday party at New York's Beacon Theater. Costello rounded off the evening with a toe-curlingly, unctuous rendition of "Happy Birthday":
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/uspolitics/26hillary.html?ref=politics .
Back in 1987, when a UK General Election was called by Thatcher, Billy Bragg phoned Costello to ask for his involvement in the Red Wedge campaign. Costello declined to assist, saying that it was a bad idea, presumably on the grounds that acts shouldn't align themselves with party political organisations. He's certainly changed his tune.