St Helens music festival snaps up the opportunity to shine

Aug 10 2007 By Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

WHILE Liverpool’s Mathew Street Festival flounders, its counterpart in St Helens goes from strength to strength.

Now in its third year, tomorrow’s annual Eclectica free festival in the town’s Victoria Square boasts the strongest line- up yet, with headliners Liverpool legends Echo and the Bunnymen supported by Little Man Tate and ex-La and Cast member John Power. Others in the line-up include Glaswegian folk rockers The Poems, plus The Acrylics, Giant Root Attack and The Lancashire Hotpots.

As an extra bonus – and perhaps to add further injury to what could be politely called Liverpool’s continued organisational misfortunes – the organisers of St Helens Council have taken on board the winners of the 2007 Streetwaves battle of the bands competition.

Streetwaves featured the best up-and-coming Merseyside musicians in the 14 to 25 age group who were due to appear during the ill-fated Mathew Street Bank Holiday celebrations.

"These were the bands deemed to be the most ready to succeed in various heats across Merseyside, and Mathew Street was probably their first chance to be seen by a wider audience – now they will get their chance," says Huyton-born Gary Maddock, St Helens’s tourism development manager.

The festival will now start at 11am with Streetwaves bands: The Volumes; Michelle Strahan; Guru Sales; The Bo Weevils; MC Inferno; L4T and Major Major taking the stage before The Lancashire Hotpots are scheduled to appear at 2pm.

John Power is scheduled for 5.30pm and Little Man Tate at 6.45pm before the Bunnymen appear at 8.15pm. The band’s founder members Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant and Co are expected to turn out a greatest hits set, including a clutch of their ’80s charts classics such as The Killing Moon and The Cutter.

The concert will be followed by an after-show party at the nearby Citadel Arts Centre, co-sponsors of the non-profit making event.

Tickets for this are £8 and will feature a DJ set by Sergeant and performances by The Loungs and The Maybes, who both performed at the recent Knowsley Hall Festival.

"We are not making any money out of this – it’s all about changing people’s perceptions about St Helens," adds Gary. "It’s more of a coincidence that we have got local acts such as the Bunnymen and John Power on the main bill – we wanted a quality line-up regardless of where the artists come from, and in terms of their influence on so many other bands, the Bunnymen are a great headline act which shows how popular the free festival now is.

"With an open-air Mathew Street Festival not going ahead on the scale it has done in previous years, it does put us on the platform to shine as the main urban free music festival for the North West and this year sets a benchmark for better quality." The capacity for the Square has been set for 9,999, and stewards with click counters will be monitoring the numbers in attendance.

As it falls within the zero tolerance zone for drinking outside, no alcohol will be allowed to be drunk on the site and anyone with cans or bottles will be asked to hand them over.

Free access, however, will be allowed in and out of the Square throughout the festival and those wanting to have a drink or buy food will be encouraged to use the nearby pubs and local shops.

For those travelling from outside who are unfamiliar with St Helens, Victoria Square is right in front of the Town Hall in the middle of the town centre.

This is in walking distance of the brand new £6m St Helens Central Merseyrail station, and St Helens bus station.

The running order is as follows: 11am to 2pm Streetwaves; 2pm The Lancashire Hotpots; 2.45pm Josephine Grace (Streetwaves winner); 3.15pm Giant Root Attack; 4pm The Acrylics; 4.45pm The Poems; 5.30pm John Power; 6.45pm Little Man Tate; 8.15pm Echo and the Bunnymen.