The Mathew Street Festival

Over the Bank Holiday weekend (26 – 27 August), the streets of Liverpool will be packed out for the Mathew Street Festival. This free two-day event is 20 years old this year, with over 80 hours of live outdoor music provided by cover, original and new bands, attracting both locals and guests from all over Europe. Five outdoor stages provide live music from midday until 6.00 p.m. More than 95 bands will be performing from as far as USA, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Switzerland, Russia, Sweden and Scotland.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Beatles in their best-known incarnation, there will be a tribute to Liverpool’s most famous band: the second day has been renamed Merseybeat Monday, celebrating all things Beatles and Beatles-influenced. Two stages will be dedicated to the Fab Four, as that week marks 50 years since Ringo joined John, Paul and George (and since Pete Best was ousted, which even now some Beatles fans haven't forgiven the three other Beatles for). A selection of tracks from every Beatles album will be performed.

The festival is always good fun with a great atmosphere. My write up of the 2010 event can be found here. Being Liverpool, there is no shortage of great pubs in the area as well.

There are places I remember ...

I love the Beatles' music, so I was sorry to hear that Liverpool City Council has decided to go ahead with the demolition of 9 Madryn Street in the Dingle area of Liverpool, the house where Ringo Starr was born.  The full story is here.  Campaigners to save Madryn Street compare this decision to the one to demolish the Cavern in the 1970s, pointing out that the childhood homes of Paul and John are preserved by the National Trust, so why not Ringo's? 

But is this a fair comparison?  There are some who regard anything with a Beatles connection as being almost sacred, but there must be a limit to what can be preserved.  Ringo left this house when he was three months old, so it played no part on his musical development, unlike the homes of John and Paul; you can't point to a room and say, "That's where he learned to play the drums."

There is also the important point as to who will pay for its preservation and maintenance in perpetuity.  With public finances as they are now, Liverpool council would be severely criticised if it committed itself for years ahead to spending public money for such a purpose, while at the same time cutting back on essential public services.  As far as I know, the National Trust has shown no interest in taking it on, so I don't see any help coming from that direction.

Campaigners describe the house as "a priceless tourist resource that the city would be mad to destroy" (you can read more of what they say here), but the question of who pays to maintain it still needs an answer.  I really think it would be a shame if it goes, but being realistic, I don't see that the council has any choice.

It was 30 years ago today

As I'm sure everyone will know, today is the 30th anniversary of the shooting of John Lennon. It wasn't the first time our generation had lost one of its heroes; we'd also lost Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Mick Taylor, Sandy Denny, Keith Moon and Gram Parsons, just to name a few, but none had been murdered - that's why Lennon's death was such a shock. When we learned the reason, it was even worse: the killer simply wanted to be famous, to be someone. This is surely the nasty side of the coin of craving fame for its own sake, devoid of any real achievements. Compared to now, celebrity culture was in its infancy in 1980, but even then a nonentity was so desperate for fame that he decided to kill one of the most famous musicians on the planet.

I heard the news on Radio 1 just as I was about to get up to go to work. I couldn't take it in and didn't get up for another hour; I only just got to work on time. Our office at the time had a lot of staff in their teens and twenties, and Sue, who worked on the section nearest the door, said sadly as I walked in, "They'll never get back together now, will they?" Another friend - not particularly a Beatles fan - told me that when his wife said that Lennon was dead, he wasn't surprised, assuming a drug overdose, but was stunned to hear it was murder. One very young woman, a massive Beatles fan, was in uncontrollable tears and had to be sent home. And so it went on throughout the day.

It seems strange to reflect now on the impact that piece of news had, completely disproportionate when you think of the innumerable tragedies caused by wars, massacres and natural disasters since then. It must be that for many of us it was an awful end to an important and formative part of our childhood, combined with complete incomprehension as to why anyone would want to murder a Beatle.

Kingsway Goes Up In Flames

The Kingsway in its heyday

The Kingsway on Southport's Promenade has burned down tonight. This was a fondly remembered nightspot for Southport residents of certain generations. It was the venue for the first ever appearance of the Beatles with Ringo Starr in the line up, not long after he had been poached from Rory Storm and the Hurricanes as a replacement for Pete Best. A poster advertising the Kingsway night in 1962 featured the tagline: ‘Pa’s gone down to the dog track, mother’s playin’ bingo. But everyone else is going to see The Beatles’.

Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck also performed there, which gives some indication of the prestige that this establishment once had. In the 1990s it became a nightclub called Bliss, but finally closed down for good a few years ago.

The Kingsway was due to be demolished to make way for yet another block of flats, but it's a shame that it all ended like this. You can see pictures on the local news website Southport GB.