Liverpool

T. Middy and I recently spent a couple of days in Liverpool. It's changed a great deal since my last visit, c. 1992, when I was working at Polygram and either a) attending a Dmitri Hvorostovsky summer performance at an outdoor venue, during which I (ever underdressed) froze to death, even though DM insisted I take his scarf; or b) taking DJ Gary Davies up on the train to be interviewed by Richard and Judy on This Morning. Ah, my professional glory days.

Liverpool is brilliant these days. We stayed at Base2Stay - a renovated warehouse in a very central location, which (we were told) was well dodgy a few years ago. Even now the view is of a semi-derelict building across the street. I like derelict buildings.

 

We went to one of the shows in the Biennial in this boarded-up building, abandoned in the 1980s. It's the Scandinavian Hotel, backing onto the 'Europleasure' building (on the right of the photo below). The film we watched, Touch and Go, shows people throwing stones through the building's windows.

 

And after that we needed a drink.

We were there during the week, so couldn't see Liverpool FC play, though we did manage to find their shop. It is, we discovered, the best place to buy Liverpool FC towels, duvet covers, curtains, cups, stickers, clothes, shot glasses, ashtrays and lunchboxes. We spent most of our time doing every conceivable touristy thing, especially if it had some Beatles connection - though we didn't have time to go out for dinner with Pete Best's mother, possibly one of the many ways to spend our money on a Beatles-related activity. (One of the guided tours actually costs 95 pounds a person, which is about $1000 in a normal currency.) We were also prevented from taking a ferry cross the Mersey, now an expensive "river cruise", because it was full. We had to content ourselves with driving in a tunnel UNDER the Mersey the next day, which is practically the same thing, and (even with the motorway toll) a lot cheaper.

Here is TM at the original entrance to the Cavern.

We also went a couple of times to the Jacaranda, once run by the Beatles' first manager, Alan Williams, with murals downstairs allegedly painted by John Lennon and Stu Sutcliffe when they were art students. Despite my job-induced aversion to live music, we really enjoyed the open mike ("give them a world-famous Jacaranda welcome") night - basically a sing-song. Sing-songs are exempt from my live music moratorium, especially if the songs include "Wonderwall" and "A Day in the Life" and "Pinball Wizard." The crowd there was mostly good-natured students who kept offering us seats, because apparently we are old.

Here we are, being old in the ferris wheel. After you've gone around four times, and taken lots of pictures, and discussed how the people on the "river cruise" will be suffering now the weather's closing in, you're reduced to taking pictures of yourselves.

And maybe you'll take one more shot of the view:

The other highlight of the ferris wheel, for me, was the 80s music playing while we were waiting to get on, including the German version of "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco. ("Er war ein Superstar/Er war so populär".) TM may beg to differ on this, but this is because he doesn't know all the words to "Keep Feeling Fascination" by the Human League, and is therefore at a social/cultural disadvantage.

Most of the time we walked around, because there's so much to see.

The two restaurants where we ate were excellent: Lunya and Alma De Cuba. The latter was one of the most spectacular restaurants I've ever seen - in a (deconsecrated) church built in the 1780s. This picture gives just a hint of how beautiful it is:

We were sad to leave. We plan to go back some time in the new year, hopefully to see a football match, and possibly hang out with Fernando Torres.

[T. Middy has just read this through, and says he would spell open mike "open mic". He also says he would not necessarily choose to hang out with F. Torres. Whatever.]

Addendum: the photo taken by TM on his phone downstairs inside the Jacaranda, with the alleged Lennon/Sutcliffe mural:

Comments

[Jenn]

My brother says he'll come over there and hang out with you and Torres. Wish you had posted the picture of John Lennon's art. Would have been interesting to see how he painted.