Submit Response is a weblog by Jack Mottram, a Livercool
Tatler says Liverpool is, like, totally cool.
The accent is to die for, and so is the talent: musicians, writers, artists and film-makers spill out of Liverpool to entertain the rest of the world. This is a place where tradition meets cutting edge. Isabella Blow, Tatler’s Fashion Director, styles a fashion story with Eloise Anson, Hon Mary Charteris, the Countess of Derby, Atomic Kitten, Joanna Taylor and James Moores, grandson of Littlewoods Pools’ Sir John Moores.
You picked a nice cross-section of Scouse society there, Izzy.
Aside from the rather condescending metropolitan granting of cool status — as if Liverpool needs to be told it’s hip by Tatler — this sort of thing doesn’t do the city any harm, especially when you consider the prevailing of the city as a home to thieving dole fraudsters, albeit with a plucky sense of humour, chiefly associated with riots, football stadium disasters and child murderers.
It strikes me that the Liverpool is in the process of doing a Glasgow, so to speak, with media fluff like the Tatler piece, and events like the inaugural Biennial serving the same purpose as Glasgow’s City of Culture status — it doesn’t take much more than this to turn a post-industrial shit-hole into a glittering jewel in the crown of Northern Europe!
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Having just recently moved to Liverpool from the city thats smiles better, I would have to agree with you (and Tatler!) that it is a city on the move. The Biennial last year was a truly international and inspiring art event using public spaces as galleries, supporting fresh young artists and giving people a chance to look again at the excellent works contained in the Tate and Walker.
This weekend saw the opening of FACT, http://www.fact.co.uk, a £10 million state of the art, 3 screen cinema, gallery and venue for multimedia event which opened with Alex Cox’s Revengers Tragedy which was filmed entirely on location in the Pool.
Both these instances do show that the city is investing and gearing itself towards change, innovation and artistic appreciation. However, these things usually come at a price and local indiginous, alternative cultures are being swept aside by the council, in the rush to embrace the filthy lucre that comes with urban redevelopment and cultural industries.
We must remember that this is the same city council that turned the original Cavern into a car park, and forced Eric’s to close its doors and let it be turned into an irish theme bar.
Local alternative art space Jump Ship Rat has now closed down due to the planned redevelopment in that area. This was home to performance art, abstract electronics, multimedia events and generally just a hang out for the disperate, dissenting voices within the city. No more.Next up will be Quigans, the Virginia Galleries of Liverpool and the hang out for all the Goth kids in the locality. Much like our own GOMA it provides a focal point for this culture and if it is taken from them and replaced by…wait for it…a huge, up market shopping centre, then it really will add to the blandness and superficiality that is creeping into the city.
That would be a real shame.
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It’s certainly tricky to steer between rejuvinating a city and ripping the soul out of the place. New York is a prime example - everyone who lives there seems to complain that the city has lost it’s character post-Guiliani…
I tend to err on the side of being in favour of developments like this, mistakes do get made - knocking down Quiggans would be one, that’s for sure - but I definitely prefer both Liverpool and Glasgow now, as compared to either city five or ten years ago…
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