No sound of music

Jun 17 2008 by Mr Brocklebank, Liverpool Daily Post

VEXED Under & Over Mersey Tunnel Sunday walkers demanded if Mr Brocklebank knew whether soured Anglo-Russian diplomatic relations led to Merseytravel banning the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and its maestro, Vasily Petrolko-Strikov, from playing mid-tunnel as Carl Davis and the RLPO had previously.

A spokesperson for Liverpool’s European grand cultural vizier Profiterolo Felipe di Gonzales Redmondo, Order of Lennon (drama first class) and St Michael’s (lingerie third floor) denied this slur, saying: “Due to auditing errors by the former cultural directorate, insufficient aqualungs were ordered for Handel’s Underwater Music, as legally required by EU orchestral manoeuvres in the dark tunnel regulations, sub-section 1812; also the outer traffic lane had no appropriate adaptor socket to plug in the Hammond organ. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused customers.”

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FANCY that: at a posh restaurant near Wigan, Mr Brocklebank espied fellow diners Bryan Gray, chairman of both North West Development Agency and Liverpool Culture Co, with Jason Harborow, ex-Culture Company chief executive.

Was the meal paid for by Mr Gray’s NWDA or Culture Co expense accounts, or from Mr Harborow’s £230,000 pay-off from Liverpool City Council?

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SO FAREWELL to Loyd Grossman, whose shock resignation from chairing National Museums Liverpool, in Culture Year, was marked by a glittering dinner at the Walker Art Gallery, hosted by Secretary of State for “fun”, Andy Burnham MP.

Curiously, NML director Dr David Fleming appeared to be otherwise engaged.

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DURING Sefton council's cabinet meeting last Thursday, proceedings were interrupted by a burst of the Great Escape film theme. Hot-foot from his Dubai holiday home, so Mr Brocklebank hears, a bronzed Graham Haywood, the crisis-stricken authority's chief executive, hurriedly rooted in his pockets to stop disruption to the debate on the borough's new rubbish collection regime.

The Great Escape is apt as Mr Haywood negotiated a £235,000 early retirement package. But will he remain in Sefton “PoW” Council Camp until the leadership stalemate, caused by the May elections, is resolved?

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HOW agreeable to see Liverpool Pier Head thronged with so many US passengers from Princess Cruises’ mega-liner, Grand Princess. But given the new cruise terminal cost £19m, why are the entrances so unfriendly, with barbed wire and spikes? US tourists must feel they’re not arriving at Liverpool Bay, but Guantanamo Bay.

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HOW odd that, in Ben Johnson’s Cityscape 2008, the Liverpool panorama commissioned by National Museums Liverpool for £1m (the price of two Rossetti masterpieces), there are only two of the three proposed “grotesques” – the black pyramid flats on Mann Island. Does Mr Johnson know something we don’t?