Phil Redmond: A great weekend

Jan 18 2008 by Phil Redmond, Liverpool Daily Post

COVERAGE. You couldn’t buy the sort of media space the city was given last weekend. Well, actually, we did. We did it through our past actions. Our shared heritage. And a great gig.

We are well used to high levels of negative coverage about Liverpool, all of which has contributed to the, largely, southern-based myths and misconceptions, so it came as both a pleasant surprise and relief that, finally, most of the external media seemed to get what 2008, UK Capital of Culture, is all about.

It’s about what’s shaped the city and the people, its heritage, good and bad, as well as its aspirations and ambitions. It’s about the breadth and depth of its cultural roots.

From the Bluecoat to the Blackie; from the Phil to the rappers; from the galleries to Goodison; from FACT to factories; from theatre to Biennial. And, of course, rows over Ringo’s song and over Banksy’s cat.

It’s about where Liverpool fits in both the UK’s and world culture. It’s as much about them as about us.

Even our new best friends, BBC London, who I have not been slow to criticise in the past, gave amazingly supportive coverage – for them!

The creatives involved in putting the show together have, rightly, been applauded, especially for the St George’s Plateau show as gales and floods cut rehearsals down from three days to one, so what was seen was, effectively, the dress rehearsal.

Inevitably, a few things didn’t quite work as expected and, for as you now know, the MC on Wellington’s Tower was a local lad who had the bottle to go up there when a few of our better-known faces wouldn’t. And can you blame them?

Officialdom itself, another of my regular targets, should also get some coverage and take a bow as I was proud to stand before the national media and be able to say with confidence that everything went as well, if not better, than we expected. Our local cranes and scaffolders. Crowd control, monitoring and movement. From transport to policing. Everything worked.

Sure, there were a few issues here and there about transport and viewing angles, but considering that the crowd for Friday, estimated at 50,000, was double that predicted; and that Saturday saw the Echo Arena fired up in earnest for the first time; they were minor niggles over a very successful weekend.

Coverage of the magnitude we received last week comes very rarely to a city-staged event.

So, to everyone who contributed to the weekend, a heart-felt thank you.

We have all delivered a great platform from which to build with confidence a year when we should be able to expect, hopefully, not just more, but the right sort of coverage.