Phil Redmond: The spice of life

Jun 6 2008 by Phil Redmond, Liverpool Daily Post

VARIETY. And what a week this was. From the opening of Garston’s Cultural Republic, Klimt, Yankel Feather at the Liverpool Academy of Arts, Macca, the Irish President’s visit, The Big Hope, The Stand Out Comedy and the Community Foundation Awards – at which the Liverpool Academy of Arts took top prize – to the Biennial’s Transport and Parks Visible Virals strand, at Croxteth Park, it was another week when there was almost too much going on!

Especially as that list overlooks the traditional cultural happenings, like Evita at the Empire.

Apart from showing the variety of the events themselves, things like the Biennial Transport and Parks theme are great reminders of the variety of offerings across the city, never mind the surrounding districts. They are also reminders of how we might take things for granted. Like the parks. They are ranked third in the country and have over 20m individual visits per year, compared to 2m visits to the libraries.

Aside from suggesting that we should put the libraries in the parks, having recently won a silver medal at the Chelsea Flower show, our gardeners appear to be yet another hidden treasure.

Variety this week also comes from the idiosyncratic BBC, as, after hurling brickbats at them last week, deservedly for being daft, this week I am throwing them a bouquet. Their reportage of the week’s events, both nationally and locally, was tremendous. Then Radio 2 let me spend an hour pondering on why so much talent comes out of Liverpool, while BBC television are letting Alexei Sayle do exactly the same thing, but over three hours on television. Is there a moral in there somewhere? Anyway, Alexei starts tonight on BBC2, and Liverpool will once again be given a week of national exposure.

Variety also came in the way different people think with what appeared to be another reinvention of the wheel in trying to get people into Anfield to see Macca. Many Reds were left wondering why they queued for so long considering 45,000 faithful seem to get in and out without much trouble each week. However, the usual system is actually designed to keep people off the pitch. On Sunday, they had to get them onto it. Something the stadium wasn’t designed for!

Another piece of variety at the stadium appeared to be an umbrella fetish, but enough said about that one, with the only serious injury of the night appearing to be a WPC, when she was thrown from her horse after it was startled by the end-of-show fireworks. It now appears, perhaps, that, in the People’s Republic of Health and Safety, there are now so many hi-vis jackets about, that the chances of being injured are highest in those actually stewarding the event.

That is an interesting addition to life’s rich variety.