Mike Chapple: Time to get on an enjoy 08

Jan 12 2008 by Mike Chapple, Liverpool Daily Post

MIKE CHAPPLE on a momentous day for the city of Liverpool

HERE we all are, the world’s press sitting in St George’s Hall revamped small Concert Room waiting for Ringo Starr and his musical collaborator Dave Stewart to arrive.

Already we’d heard Ringo’s catchy new video for his 08 single replayed for... well, it must have been the 180th time, and catchy though it was, you can have too much of a good thing.

But the time for carping is over: we’ve done enough of it in the bumpy rollercoaster ride over the past five years since THAT announcement. And though much of the criticism of the great and the good has been well deserved, there was definitely a feeling in the air that now Capital of Culture year is here we can finally get on and enjoy it for God’s sake.

Certainly there was a welcome return of some droll black Scouse humour after Liverpool City Council leader Warren Bradley stepped up before the hacks and said wasn’t it wonderful to be in a building that had had a £23m revamp.

“Did you say 23 million, Warren?” said Phil Redmond as he took the podium in. “That £23m could have saved us from the mess we were in.”

The jollity continued when Ringo – looking terrifically spry for his age – took questions from the journos including one from Latin America.

“Will you be coming to Argentina this year,” said the man from Del Monte.

Answer: “No. Nothing personal like but I’m just not going to Argentina.”

He even took one from Yours Truly.

“We visited your old local The Empress this week – will you be popping in for a pint as well?”

Emphatic answer with a wry grin: “No.”

Which is because it was a bit of a stupid question and a perfectly understandable answer given that this was a man who gave up the ale a long time ago. No wonder he’s looking so good.

Also looking good were the students working for the Yankee dollar who’d hired out the rooms in the halls of residence at the old converted North Western Hotel facing the stage on St George’s Plateau. They’d taken ready cash of between £5,000 and £6,000 from CBS TV to set up their cameras there.

Education was also on the agenda for a foreign journalist served a mean helping of complimentary Scouse of the culinary kind in the Head of Steam pub.

“Is zis Scouse?,” she exclaimed in amazement. “I never thought it existed.”

And talking of pubs even by Friday night standards, when most of the city’s hostelries are normally busy anyway, pubs on the periphery of the Plateau were packed fit to bust from five o’clock onwards.

In the Lord Warden on London Road, squashed-up punters were greeted by the sight of a Highland bagpiper in full regalia trying to bustle his way through the crowd to parp out a rendition of Amazing Grace and Macca’s Mull Of Kintyre. It was a game effort marred by too many bums and elbows backing into his windbag. Painful.

Outside, meanwhile, a great river of humanity was piling down the hill into the ocean of Merseysiders already patiently waiting for the big countdown.

OK, we could have down with a bombastic firework display to round it all off but everyone does that don’t they?

We do things different here.

We did cranes, aerobatics and 100 percussionists and guitarists crashing out beats from the heights of the St John’s Tower, St George’s Hall, the Walker and the Empire. I thought it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen.

And then there was Ringo.

I would have preferred it if the one song he’d played was not his new one but the ’71 classic It Don’t Come Easy, something which says it all about the Culture club of the past five years.

Still. It was great to see him back banging our drum on his old stomping ground.

Nice one.

Now let’s get on with it.

Hi-ho Silver, away.