Jason Harborow: My Mathew Street hell

Aug 1 2008 by Paddy Shennan

ON the eve of the anniversary of the ‘cancellation’ of the 2007 Mathew Street Festival, chief feature writer Paddy Shennan speaks EXCLUSIVELY to Jason Harborow, the former chief executive of Liverpool Culture Company

HE may now be running an international consultantcy from his new home in Spain, but this time last year Jason Harborow was one of the public faces of a Liverpool fiasco.

The Great Mathew Street Festival Cock-Up caused a huge fall-out between the then culture company chief executive and city council leader Warren Bradley.

Eventually, in January this year, it was announced that Harborow was leaving his job with a £230,000 pay-off.

I met him at Chester Racecourse, where he was working as a consultant for the British Masters Invitational event (trying to make showjumping sexy? Good luck!). The 38-year-old father-of-three was friendly, open and happy to talk – which was good, because I had one or two questions.

Q: We’re over halfway through 2008 and it’s going great guns. So is that all down to you – or Phil Redmond?

“It’s a team that’s delivered Capital of Culture. I certainly wouldn’t be conceited enough to claim the credit for it but I would say I was an integral part of a very talented team. I think there are certain characters who are now able to take some of the credit for it and I think Phil Redmond has done a very good job in relation to his front and being the face of it.

“I think Bryan Gray is an excellent chairman. I also feel people like Drummond Bone, Sue Woodward and even Sir David Henshaw are perhaps not given the credit they deserve. And people like Mike Storey and Bob Scott who had the vision for this – they all deserve credit.”

Q: The Mathew Street Festival Fiasco – do you still have nightmares?

“I don’t have nightmares and I didn’t have nightmares at the time, but it affected me and my team enormously.

“Things were made harder for us because of the lack of support from senior council officers and senior elected members. You should share success, but also share difficult times.

“What I was appalled about was the behaviour of people who chose to make it a personal fight over people’s ability, skills and commitment – that was wrong. The issues should have been sorted out and then we could have had the post mortem.

“At that time the council leader stopped talking to me as well. He was making comments from 2,500 miles away. Who was briefing him one never knows. I also think me and my team perhaps deserved a little bit more support from the council chief executive (Colin Hilton).

“I think Warren’s personal attack was wrong. Leaders should look after people and try to guide them through difficult times.”

Q: I imagine you remember that Echo poll – more than 92% of people who responded to it thought you should quit.

“It was very upsetting. I remember going to the airport not long after and I got approached by a couple of guys who’d had a bit to drink and who gave me a real tough time.

“What was most difficult for me was that, as a paid officer, I wasn’t allowed to make unauthorised statements, so the council leader and one or two other personalities were having a lot to say but I couldn’t retaliate.

“As the report that came out in November proved, I hadn’t been kept informed by certain officers.”

He adds: “I was devastated by Mathew Street and thought the way we handled the PR was bad – we didn’t cancel the festival, we cancelled four outdoor stages. That has not had an impact on the reputation of Liverpool. It was a very, very sad occurrence, but I think the way it was personalised at the time was wrong.

“On the Friday evening of the week it was cancelled, I am led to believe my computer files were copied and my office was searched by an external auditing company. That upset me because I only found out some time later, but if there was anything I’d done wrong or been negligent about they would have found out. So I was comfortable with the report.

“(Former culture company events manager) Lee Forde and (former culture company operations director) Chris Green are excellent professionals. They were the ones that got highlighted by the report – I felt that was a bit misleading.

“I don’t understand blame culture. I think we should learn from issues.”