Friday, January 11, 2008

Liverpool - Ten Cultural Wonders

It's Liverpool's day today. European Capital of Culture 2008.

Here are my top ten Scouse cultural highlights.

The Beatles, obviously - favourite album Revolver. I could go on, but no list of anything Liverpool could possibly exist without them.

Pete Wylie - some people can write good songs in the cycle of life. He wrote at least three GREAT ones - Come Back, Sinful and Story of the Blues. An unappreciated genius.

That feisty Everton team of the early 1980s. Loved how they worked hard as a unit and won things with grafters like Reid and Harper.

Brookside in the early 1990's. It was like watching a powerful Hollywood film every Saturday tea time. Spawned Jimmy McGovern and Joe Ainsworth. It's also Phil Redmond's contribution to this list and Liverpool's culture.

The End. A marvellous fanzine in the early 1980s. Loved it. See more here.

Love See No Colour. For many The Farm's success was a sign of how bad music was in the 1990s. I thought they were alright. Not great, but alright. Love See No Colour remixed by London DJs was ace.

Echo and the Bunnymen. Nothing Ever Lasts Forever was their last great tune. Never Stop was their optimistic first outing. Ironic, eh?

John Bishop. One of the best modern comics I've seen in recent years. I love all the rough arsed lads like Sean Styles and Vince Earl, but John is from that mould, but with a wry touch of modern class too.

Kevin Sampson. Punchy novelist, who I like. Can't wait to see Awaydays made into a film.

That Liverpool team with John Barnes and Peter Beardsley in it. We used to go over to watch them from Manchester in 1988.

1 comment:

Nick Morrell said...

I can't really disagree with anything there Michael. First saw the Bunnymen at Lancaster Uni back in '83, I think. Loved 'em then and still love 'em now! Only seen Pete Wylie the once and that was on stage in Istanbul outside the ground just before THAT game. He re-named Story of the Blues, "Story of Emlyn Hughes".
The Barnes/Beardsley side is one of the greatest, wish we could've seen them in Europe.