Here’s to next year

Jan 8 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

As the Champagne corks pop for ’08, one quizzical Liverpudlian launches the 2009 Appreciation Society, for those not swept along by the hullabaloo. David Charters reports

IT HAD been a long and worrying time for the Liverpool loyalist. Grey was winning its battle to be the dominant shade in the hair still sprouting gamely from his head, over a nose sculpted at that mildly eccentric angle much favoured by the English.

And Jeremy Hawthorn’s normally amiable countenance was clouded by a frown, as he pottered through the Scotland Road area of the city in his green, 1973 Volkswagen Beetle.

What was to be done about this ceaseless flow of news, the political and financial bickering, logos, boasting, plots, proposed and abandoned development plans, official statements and the comings and goings, which threatened to engulf his adopted city, as it prepared to be the 2008 European Capital of Culture?

Jeremy thought hard. From what he had learned since the award was announced five yawning, limping years ago, ordinary people didn’t share the euphoria of those in charge. Then an idea sprang up.

What about a 2009 Appreciation Society? The smile returned to Jeremy’s face. That was it.

He would establish a society with no members, no constitution and no real purpose, other than to help us through the next 12 months – while reminding everyone that Liverpool will still be here, the city we all love, long after 2008 is a footnote in history.

More than that, though, it would be a funny way of mocking authority, perhaps the strongest of the many fine qualities in the cultural composition of Liverpudlians.

If you agreed with that broad sentiment, you could buy a badge for a pound. It says, Liverpool O9 in the MMIX (2009 in Roman numerals, which Jeremy is pleased to note spells “mix”).

They are on sale at the News From Nowhere bookshop, in Bold Street, Liverpool.

Although there is a widespread hope that the Capital of Culture will be a huge success, Jeremy speaks for those already disillusioned by the whole thing.

“So we look to 2009 to regain our self-respect,” he writes in an introductory note. “That's where the Appreciation Society comes in. It is open to absolutely anyone, except city councillors and employees of the Culture Company. The only test for membership is a simple question: Are you planning to continue living in Liverpool after the end of 2008? If the answer is yes – you’re in!”

Of course, we have to face the unhappy possibility that, by December 31, 2008, some cultural leaders might have packed away their heavy job titles, CVs and coffee-percolators to bless faraway cities or events with their brilliance and energy.

The rest of us, however, will still be here on January 1, 2009, when Vilnius, in Lithuania, and Linz, in Austria, take over as European Capitals of Culture.

To give his idea a serious edge, Jeremy also suggested an alternative 2008 calendar. Instead of featuring forthcoming attractions, it records some momentous events from the city’s history.

These have been chosen to represent the common people, rather than the rulers. This “Resistance Calendar” has been published in Nerve, a glossy, quarterly magazine, published by volunteers to promote “grassroots arts and culture on Merseyside”.

Jeremy, a single man of 52, was brought up in Reading, a city in Berkshire, once renowned for its beer and cheese, but now admired by people who enjoy reading sign-posts on their way to London.

He settled in Liverpool in 1986 to work as a solicitor with the David Taylor Partnership, on Stanley Street, with whom he still practises criminal law. But his affection for the city began during earlier visits, when he was an anti-racism worker with the British Council of Churches.

“I always felt there was a combativeness about Liverpool people, a willingness to say boo to a goose,” says Jeremy, who lives near Princes Park. “Giving us the Capital of Culture was a very bold national step.

“Sadly, since then it has been lions led by donkeys. A lot of people have been keen on nat- ional attention because Liverpool is so used to being a pariah. The national press will have to put the Scouse stereotypes on the back-burner for 12 months, but come 23.59 on December 31, it will be ‘as you were’.”

But what will the 2009 Appreciation Society do when the year ends. Liverpool humour beams through Jeremy’s reply. “I think it will almost certainly disband,” he replies.

“Its objective will have been achieved. That is to help us survive 2008. It deliberately has no structure, no fancy offices, no bank account and no existence – save that which people choose to give it. We have produced 250 badges because that was the lowest number we could get, but we could do more. It’s a badge of dissent against the wave of complacency being smeared over us.”

Jeremy thinks we can either ignore the whole thing or make the best of it, with his badge to help us through it all.

And who knows? The call for those badges might grow and grow.

davidcharters@dailypost.co.uk